--- title: "Residents Furious at Neighbor Testing Super Loud Rocket Engines" description: "Rocket Racket Rockets are big, loud, explosive, and undoubtedly cool to witness in action. But tell that to the residents of a town that have to hear them all day long. SpaceRyde is a Canadian rocket startup based in Trent Hills, Ontario, and it hasn’t been earning the adoration of the townspeople. Its office is […]" date: "2022-11-12" modified: "2022-11-12" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/residents-furious-neighbor-loud-rocket-engines" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "rocket engines" - "rockets" - "the digest" --- # Residents Furious at Neighbor Testing Super Loud Rocket Engines ![]() *\Image: SpaceRyde\* ## Rocket Racket Rockets are big, loud, explosive, and notoriously cool to witness in action. But tell that to the residents of a town that have to hear them all the time. SpaceRyde is a Canadian rocket startup with a facility in Trent Hills, Ontario — and it hasn’t been earning the adoration of the townspeople there. Its office is rated 1 star on Google from a [sole review]() that complains that SpaceRyde’s facility is "really noisy" and is "definitely \[negatively\] affecting the quality of life of nearby residents." And unfortunately for the rocket company, that reviewer isn’t alone in their thinking. A Change.org [petition]() demanding SpaceRyde cease its rocket testing has been signed by over 700 people, in a town that only has a population of 13,000. "The sound can be heard for many miles and startles anyone in the nearby vicinity," the petition claims. "Horses may bolt, and pets are distressed. Wildlife is disrupted." It even claims that "people's safety is at risk" because the sudden noise may cause people to lose concentration while working. *Trent Hills Now*, the local newspaper, [reports]() that the town’s municipality, via legal counsel, has requested SpaceRyde voluntarily cease rocket engine testing. The mayor, Bob Crate, says that the testing occurred "without knowledge of the municipality," [according to the newspaper](). ## Blown Out SpaceRyde has remained — in seemingly a company first — relatively quiet about the complaints. "A lot has happened since its posting," the company's head of marketing Jen Scholten [told *Space.com*]() of the petition, without elaborating further. In an earlier open house session addressing residents’ concerns, SpaceRyde’s co-founder Sohrab Haghighat claimed that the tests are never louder than 100 decibels, which is comparable to a semi-truck "highly revving" its engine, [as quoted by *Trent Hills Now*](). Haghighat also notes that they always inform locals before the tests are carried out. Fellow co-founder Saharnaz Safari, who is married to Haghihat, put things in perspective: "out of the 52 million seconds \[the site has been in operation\], we have generated noise for 200 seconds," she said at the open house. Whoever is in the right, hopefully the two parties can work something out. **More on rockets:** *[NASA Watches Nervously as Hurricane Threatens Exposed Moon Rocket]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()