This blog was posted 4 days before the failed spacex launch and what it lays out even before the rocket exploded and spread god knows what kind of contaminant all over the gulf coast is a damning indictment of every regulatory agency involved in allowing spacex not just to launch their spaceship, but to even build a launch center in the middle of one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the entire country.
"The NASA complex in Florida is nearly 4x the total acreage of SpaceX’s Texas site and was designed with sufficient separation from the launch tower to surrounding land. NASA also owns and operates the thousands of acres surrounding these pads.
Here in Texas, SpaceX’s launch tower sits 500 ft away from the protected habitat owned by either the FWS or Texas Parks and Wildlife. All of the surrounding land, however, is considered protected wildlife habitat under the Endangered Species Act."
"In addition to the siting and sizing of the pad, SpaceX does not have a flame trench, nor do they have a water deluge system used to suppress heat and sound energy from any launches...
No large rocket complex on the planet exists that doesn’t contain one or both of these energy suppression systems.
SpaceX’s orbital pad, by way of comparison, is but a 30 ft tall stand situated 400 feet away from Methane storage tanks and 500 feet away from ecologically sensitive low tidal flats."
It wasn't until I read this that I even knew how close the methane fuel tanks were to the launch site. They're not even half a mile away. Due to Musk's cheapness and incompetence that launch pad was spitting out concrete like a machine gun when the main engines lit up on launch day. It's no small miracle a stray piece of concrete didn't slam into the methane storage tanks and completely light'em up.
@radicalrobit In fact the tanks were damaged by shrapnel from the explosion. As you say, pure luck that none of that damage was enough to puncture the tanks and cause a (nother) explosion. In video and stills with the tanks in them, you can see the dents.
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