Starship's Sonic Booms Are So Powerful They Could Damage Structures on the Ground, Scientists Find

Ouch.

Starship Go Boom

Scientists have found that SpaceX's massive Starship rocket is so loud that its sonic boom could cause property damage back on the ground.

Measurements taken during the Elon Musk-led company's fifth test flight last month suggest the resulting wave of sound and air pressure could pose "greater risk of structural damage, such as glass breakage and falling bric-a-brac" in the nearby village of Port Isabel, the team led by Brigham Young University physicist Kent Gee wrote in a paper published in the journal JASA Express Letters.

Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, is roughly ten times as loud as SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. Gee told the New York Times that even miles away, the noise during October's test flight was like standing just 200 feet from a Boeing 747 during liftoff.

Houston-based sound consultant Terracon, which also took measurements during the launch, found that as Starship's Super Heavy booster returned to the launchpad to be caught by the company's landing tower, pressure levels peaked at an ear-shattering 144.6 decibels — far louder than a concert and as piercing as fireworks and gunfire.

Understandably, that could be a major concern for neighboring communities, which will also have to put up with yet another explosive test launch later today. And that's not to mention Musk's well-documented loathing of environmental regulations.

"We are all for economic development and the work SpaceX is doing," Port Isabel city manager Jared Hockema told the NYT. "We just want economic development that takes place in a manner that follows the law and does not hurt existing residents or the environment."

Megasonic

During last month's test flight, Hockema said that damage to local property was pretty minimal.

But the closer you get to SpaceX's launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, that risk could be far greater. Neither Gee and his team nor Terracon took sound measurements closer to the site of the launch itself, according to the NYT, despite the roughly two dozen homes nearby that could be exposed to the deafening sounds.

There's also the question of the rocket's effects on the local fauna. The area surrounding the testing facilities is surrounded by a national wildlife refuge and a state park, which are known to be homes to several endangered bird species.

Musk has frequently complained that rules designed to protect the surrounding environment are nothing more than pointless red tape and has gone as far as mocking concerns over the destruction of nearby bird nests.

Now that his close ally president-elect Donald Trump is back in power, those rules could be eroded — allowing SpaceX to turn a deaf ear to the damage its launches are causing.

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