Pacific Spaceport in Keaau?

[EightFingers]

Will they have a ride-along program?

[leilanidude]

They say “Shipman land near Keaau”. Did they give the exact location?

Hoping it is in my backyard.
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It has been mentioned by the Shipmans that the closest residence is the Shipman home itself. To me, that says a lot about this not being any sort of dangerous, disturbing project.

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by knieft


Oh boy, that was rich! Thanks terracore.

Cheers,
Kirt

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There's more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi8MI7jjpSY

[kalakoa]

Apparently others have noticed the "small, vocal minority" that manages to thwart all development:

https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/02/...-02-16-19/

Our elected officials pay lip service to bringing new jobs and industries to Hawaii County, but lack the long term commitment and collaborative support necessary to make it happen.

Bit of an understatement there, and I'm wondering if the public has made the connection between "no growth allowed" and "yearly tax increases"...

[lavarocks]

Aloha everyone . . . I have been reading Puna Web for many years now, but never participated. Puna Web has given me a wealth of valuable information about many things, as well as a good chuckle from time to time. However, the time has come for me to add my 2 cents’ worth about this topic of the Alaskan Aerospace Spaceport for Keaau. I did some research on the internet about this Alaskan Aerospace Development Company, and this is not a private commercial company. This is military, and the Pentagon’s Star Wars program of missile defense.

You can read the full article here:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/01/...to-Alaska/

Here is an excerpt: “The Kodiak Launch Complex was marketed to Alaskans as one of the nation’s first commercial space ports. Many promises were made to lure public support: High-paying, year-round jobs. Better roads. A fancy cultural center. New schools with real astronauts helping out in the classrooms. Peace and prosperity.”

“Its backers claimed that a new age of commercial space traffic was dawning, and that Kodiak Island was one of the world’s best locations for “launching telecommunications, remote sensing, and space science payloads” into orbit.” . . . “Instead of sending into orbit commercial satellites and the cremated remains of rich Trekkies, the Kodiak site was going to work very closely with the Air Force and its legion of defense contractors.”

“There’s some compelling evidence that this was the plan all along, starting with the man tapped to head the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation: Pat Ladner, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who served in the ’80s as the program manager for a secretive project called the Single Stage Rocket Technology Program (SSTR). This program was a component of the initial burst of funding for Reagan’s version of Star Wars. But by the early ’90s, with public and congressional support lagging, the Pentagon made a decision to “privatize” much of the development and testing for many of its Star Wars projects. Ladner retired from the Air Force in 1993 and joined the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation. The facilities at Kodiak were designed by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the same shadowy wing of the Pentagon that had supervised the SSTR program on Ladner’s watch. So the launching pads at Narrow Cape turned out to be just another off-shoot of the National Missile Defense program.”

“The next round of tests at Kodiak involved a much more potent and unnerving rocket, a Polaris missile packed with a payload of simulated nuclear warheads. A Polaris was fired from Kodiak and streaked 4,300 miles to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific, where interceptor missiles tried to shoot it down. Over the next five years, Kodiak launched 20 more Polaris rockets. (The other Polaris launching site is on the Hawaiian island of Kauai [at Barking Sands].)”

“Even though the test rockets only pack simulated nukes, they are still dangerous. The missiles’ three-stage booster engines carry highly toxic materials, including magnesium, hydrazine and radioactive thorium. The boosters fall to the ocean and are not recovered. The exhaust trail itself leaves behind a poisonous plume of smoke. “Each rocket first stage releases a minimum of 8,000 pounds of aluminum oxide at lift-off,” warns Brad Stevens (no relation to the senator), a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Kodiak. “Much of this will wind up in local streams that drain into Twin Lakes and the Fossil Beach tidepools and kelp beds, which provide nutrients and shelter for juvenile marine species. Documented fish kills in waterways around Cape Kennedy attest to the fact that rocket emissions can destroy aquatic life.” (Also under the flight path of the missiles are rocky beaches on small islands that serve as haul-outs for Stellar sea lions, an endangered species.)”

“Kodiak alone already suffers from 17 toxic dumps left by previous Pentagon operations on the island. Even the push to transform the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into a forest of oil derricks has lately been justified on the grounds of national security.”

“The money comes in, but it doesn’t stay long. Most of it ends up in corporate coffers in Alabama, California and Washington State. Even Ladner, the head of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, recently admitted that the year-round jobs at the Kodiak launch site would probably only amount to a few security and maintenance positions. It’s the old Cold War routine repeated once again: The money goes south, but the risk and the waste stays up in Alaska.” [and soon to be in Keaau, Hawaii]

So now this Alaskan Aerospace Co. will be dumping toxic rocket fuel and oil into our Hawaiian ocean. Keaau will have plutonium and nuclear waste dumped into our tiny aina. Is this what we want for our Hawaii, folks?! I think not. Mahalo for reading.


...Always with Love & Aloha...

[leilanidude]

Different rockets for here with much smaller footprints.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Keaau will have plutonium and nuclear waste dumped into our tiny aina.

1) Where does the plutonium come from? You only mention it once at the end of your post.

2) How does the amount of fuel residue, exhaust, etc from a small rocket launch, twice a month, compare with the fuel residue, exhaust, etc from fishing boats, barges, cruise ships that travel across those same waters every day?

3) The Star Wars Missile Defense system involved lasers and particle beam weapons use to shoot down incoming enemy missiles. Are you saying the Alaska facility and Keaau location will have rockets with lasers and particle beam weapons on site, ready for launch at all times? Wouldn't this require multiple launch pads, which are not part of the proposal?

[kalakoa]

fuel residue, exhaust, etc from fishing boats, barges, cruise ships

Grid power from oil-fired generators. Fleets of heavy trucks bringing goods in from the port. Gas-powered lawn mowers, string trimmers, generators.

Remember, pollution is an inescapable necessity (when I'm driving to town) but also a horrible byproduct (when I don't like how it's being used).

[lavarocks]

Kalakoa, why are you shooting down the messenger. Did you not read the article? Do you always take things at face value? Do you really believe what this aerospace company is handing us? There is more than meets the eye in all this. Read the article about what this company is/has done to Kodiak Island in Alaska.

...Always with Love & Aloha...

[kalakoa]

Do you really believe what this aerospace company is handing us?

Why does that matter? They will not be allowed to build a spaceport here. Taxes will continue to rise, environmental will continue to be impacted by human activity.

Merely pointing out the hypocrisy that abounds.

Rockets burning fuel: horrible environmental impact.

Lifted 4x4 idling in the McDonald's drive-thru: well that's life.