MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — "Insane."
"Loudest."
"Intense."
"The absolute worst."
These are some of the ways that Central Texas neighbors have described the SpaceX testing on Tuesday.
You may have noticed the rumbling sounding louder than usual and more widespread.
“Does colder air make a rocket sound louder? Well, the rocket itself, that is the main culprit for how loud a rocket is going to be,” Chief Meteorologist Matt Hines said.
"However, does air temperature affect the sound? Yeah, it can actually and the colder the air mass, the louder it can perceive the sound that's coming from any source, and like what we saw in McGregor yesterday, the rockets when we have a warmer air mass, the molecules are farther apart.
"Sound can travel more freely and farther but when it's a colder air mass, like what we had yesterday, the molecules are closer together, and the sound refracts off those molecules a lot easier, and it's a lot slower as well — case in point here, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit sound travels at 740 miles per hour — that at 100 degrees Fahrenheit sound travels at 794 miles per hour, so yes, the air temperature can do that, and with the colder air that we had in place, yes, it did make it sound like it was much louder because it was refracting off."
"Those air molecules much more freely, and that's why we had the louder sound."
In a statement, the City of McGregor told 25 News that SpaceX has followed the testing time period, which says they cannot test between the hours of 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It says that all parameters relating to air pressure, noise level, and ground vibration have been adhered to by SpaceX..
Some neighbors told 25 News they’ve had broken window seals and light fixtures due to the testing.
25 News reached out to Galindo Law after seeing a post about property damage compensation.
“So what they do is they tell us what the damage is, and with that damage, we can go to SpaceX and say, look, we have an issue here,” licensed attorney Cristobal Galindo said.
“These are the damages that you guys are causing, and we can negotiate with them."
“Do you require people to have video proof or photos or anything like that for these claims?” 25 News’ Kadence MaKenna asked.
"We ask clients to do it because all that helps us determine that — hey this is real right,” Galindo said.
He says they will bring in an expert to assess the home for damage — something they’ve done with numerous clients.
“We have to have proven damages with photos, we want that video to also show causation, to show hey this is the reason why I have the damage right because of these vibrations,” Galindo said.
