Although a test flight of SpaceX’s Starship SN9 was a possibility on Monday, due to high winds the launch window came and went with no liftoff, though an attempt could be made today or Wednesday.
Meanwhile, as first reported by Bloomberg News, a Jan. 22 hearing of the Railroad Commission of Texas revealed that SpaceX wants to drill for natural gas near its Boca Chica Starship production complex and launch site. The hearing took place as part of a legal fight between Lone Star Mineral Development, which SpaceX owns, and Dallas Petroleum Group (DPG) LLC over ownership of a portion of the property in question — 806 acres of oil lease Lone Star acquired last year from a Houston-based energy company.
An attorney for Lone Star said during the hearing that SpaceX planned to use methane extracted through drilling for its rocket operations at Boca Chica. But DPG claims to own some inactive wells and 24 acres of the 806-acre La Pita lease, even though Lone Star in 2020 bought the property from Sanchez Energy, now Mesquite Energy Inc., according to Bloomberg.
The publication reported that DPG took the matter to the Railroad Commission late last summer and subsequently filed suit against three Sanchez companies in state district court in Brownsville. SpaceX’s land-acquisition subsidiary Dogleg Park LLC intervened in the lawsuit, claiming that DPG had locked SpaceX out of its own property and was merely trying to extort the company, a charge DPG denied.
The case is scheduled to be heard in Brownsville next month, while a decision on the dispute isn’t expected from the Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s energy sector, for several months, according to Bloomberg. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
It has also come to light that SpaceX, through Lone Star, last year purchased two used deepwater oil rigs for $3.5 million each from the bankrupt Houston-based company Valaris, the world’s largest owner of offshore rigs, for the purpose of conducting Starship/Super Heavy launches in the Gulf. Super Heavy is the 28-engine, 230-foot-tall booster rocket SpaceX plans to use to propel Starship, eventually to be fitted with six engines and carrying passengers and crew, into Earth orbit and beyond.
SpaceX last summer began advertising for offshore operations engineers to be part of a team designing and building “an operational offshore rocket launch facility.” Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, tweeted in July that “SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth.”
For safety’s sake, offshore launches would need to take place several miles from the coast, he tweeted, which means they may not be visible from land as with previous launches (including the Dec. 9 launch to 41,000 feet of SpaceX’s SN8 prototype).
“We need to be far enough away so as not to bother heavily populated areas,” Musk tweeted last June. “The launch & landing are not subtle. But you could get within a few miles of the spaceport in a boat.”
Until then, Starship prototypes will continue to launch from Boca Chica. SpaceX is targeting today or Wednesday to launch the SN9 on what would be the company’s second high-altitude launch and fifth launch overall at Boca Chica.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. on Monday morning announced backup dates of Jan. 26-27 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the closure of Boca Chica Beach and S.H. 4 from F.M. 1419/Oklahoma Avenue to the beach for potential launch activities. Temporary Flight Restrictions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration were in effect for Boca Chica and the surrounding area for Jan. 26-27.
