Virtually everywhere in the city “ended up with a covering of a rather thick, granular, sand grain that just landed on everything,” Valerie Bates, a Port Isabel spokeswoman, said in an interview. Images posted to social media showed [residents’ cars] covered in brown debris.A window shattered at a fitness gym, its owner, Luis Alanis, said. Mr. Alanis, who was at home at the time of the launch, said he felt “rumbling, kind of like a mini earthquake.” He estimated that the window would cost about $300 to fix.
Closer to the launch site, [large pieces of debris]were recorded flying through the air and smashing into an unoccupied car.
And here’s the why:
Normally, major launch sites are engineered with a trench or [water system] that helps to divert the rocket’s flame away from the ground and to dampen the impact, he said.“They didn’t do that,” he said. “It appears they just went ahead and just launched this thing.”
Oh no Captain! More regulations possibly on the horizon, raising costs for the shiny entrepreneur. Whatever will he do?