ARS Technica by Eric Berger - 8/9/2021
Holding back Starship means holding back this progress, Musk was saying.
Workers perform a fit check with Starship (above) and the Super Heavy booster.
Nearly a century ago, humans built skyward for the first time at an unprecedented rate. It was the age of skyscrapers.
During the half-century before 1920, the US population doubled. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution simmered, reaching a boil as America leaned into World War I and produced the machines and material to fight in Europe. After the war, the population growth and significant gains in industrial productivity led to a dramatic rise in office space needs—from 1870 to 1920, the demand for US office space increased ten-fold.
As a result, with this high demand and cheap financing, skyscraper construction soared during the Roaring Twenties. First the 71-story Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, with 71 floors, went up in New York City. This was followed by the Chrysler Building, with 77 floors, and finally the Empire State Building, with 102 floors.
It was a moment of prosperity and promise in America. Standing at drafting tables, engineers designed these structures using reinforced concrete and daring architectures. Then, everyday laborers built them higher and higher into the sky, eating their lunches in the clouds.
Lunch atop a skyscraper in 1932.
Now, we may be about to do it again.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle of all will be clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is working with SpaceX to conduct an environmental assessment of launching such a mammoth rocket from these South Texas wetlands. After a "draft" of this assessment is published, there will be an approximately 30-day period for public comments. This will be followed by other steps, including a determination by the FAA on whether SpaceX's proposed environmental mitigations will be enough or if more work is required.
On Friday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk sent a clear message to the FAA and other federal regulators. One evocative photo, in particular, drove home his message to anyone watching. It showed workers standing beneath Starship, as it was lowered onto the first-stage rocket. In releasing a black-and-white version, Musk knew exactly what he was doing in harkening back to the age of skyscrapers.
The 21st-century skyscrapers are being built right now, the photo screamed, by modern engineers and welders. Such rockets are not to be found in PowerPoints or wooden mockups any longer. They are living, breathing machines nearly ready to breathe fire.
To the FAA, Musk seemed to be saying, federal regulators must do their part to ensure the future arrives on schedule. Just as the 20th-century skyscrapers marked the beginning of a new era and eventually launched America into a prosperous future of finance, communication, marketing, and more, the 21st century now beckons.
The skyscraper age will soon give way to the space age.
More:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/with-a-single-photo-spacex-sent-a-not-so-subtle-message-to-faa-regulators/
