Endangered Chicken Impacting Midland Spaceport License Application
Lesser prairie chicken
An update on Midland International Airport’s application for a spaceport license, which is necessary for XCOR to move its R&D facility to the West Texas facility:
It appears the mating rituals of the lesser prairie chicken are imposing on Midland International Airport’s pursuit of a spaceport license.
After the chicken was federally listed in March, the airport submitted an addendum to its environmental assessment explaining why the spaceport wouldn’t be a threat to the now “threatened” species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, worried about sonic booms negatively impacting the small chicken’s early-morning spring mating habits, has yet to approve the addendum.
But Midland Director of Airports Marv Esterly — who offered to send biologists to Andrews County to study how the first five launches would impact the chickens — fully expects the service to sign off and the Federal Aviation Administration to deliver a finding of “no significant impact.”
“They are really sensitive to what’s out there,” Esterly said during Tuesday’s Spaceport Development Corp. meeting. “We feel the sonic boom is so small — so much less than a thunder clap — that it won’t have an effect.”
The FAA is set to make a decision by Sept. 15.
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One response to “Endangered Chicken Impacting Midland Spaceport License Application”
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It sounds funny calling it a “chicken” (and “chicken” is admittedly part of its name – but it’s not “a chicken”, it’s the ‘Lesser Prarire Chicken’), but this is a unique species native to the area that has possibly nowhere else to go. I don’t claim to know all the details of the case, but it’s a somewhat magnificent bird. If you’ve ever seen its mating and territorial displays, you’ll know what I mean.
Other species share this planet too. I’m not saying the spaceport shouldn’t possibly be built, but I am saying that, funny names aside, impact on other species is worthy of sober consideration.