SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBCreport on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.
SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. But after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.
Yup. They burn heavy bunker fuel - the sludge that is too bad to be used for anything else.
Considering the amount of shipping, it’s horrendous.
But - and there’s always another view - I don’t know how much energy you’d need to use to haul that much cargo by other means like rail and trucks. One container ship carries as much as a thousand trains could carry. Vessels are really, really large, which make them quite effective.
And trains can’t cross Oceans. Even tho that cargo ships need a shit load of fuel it isn’t that much per ton of cargo due to the efficiency and sheer mass they are carrying