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THE COAST NEWS
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VOL. 35, N0. 18
APRIL 30, 2021
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
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Clean Energy Alliance launches Monday. A3
Is water above the law of supply and demand? A5
Getting Deals Done: Introducing new column. A15 THE American Legion Baseball making local comeback. A19 VISTA
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WATCH THIS SPACE
“The bluff failures are getting all too common. And the reinforcement is appreciated, but we’re not going to have our natural bluff for much longer because it doesn’t look like a natural bluff once you reinforce it. So having that be a priority is really important to all of us,” CouncilmemTURN TO TRACKS ON A6
TURN TO SDUHSD ON A6
Can region benefit from industry’s expected takeoff? REGION — The commercial space industry, already building steam, is widely expected to boom in coming decades, with the San Diego region seemingly well positioned to participate. “We have seen explosive growth in the industry,” said Kevin Lynaugh of Vulcan Wireless, a Carlsbad company that develops radios and antennas for satellite communications.
“On every rocket launch we are seeing dozens of small satellites, or more, inserted into low earth orbit.” “We can think of space as being an ocean, with another ocean just a few feet above it, and so on,” he said, referring to incrementally larger orbits. While some worry about accumulating space debris, prognosticators see huge room to expand, not least with more satellites.
Of a $366 billion global space industry in 2019, the satellite sector accounted for $271 billion, including services, ground equipment, manufacturing and launch, according to the Satellite Industry Association. The number of operational satellites increased by roughly 75% between 2015 and 2019. The Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimated 2019 space industry revenues even high-
er, at $424 billion. Bank of America sees revenues potentially tripling to $1.4 trillion by 2030, CNBC reported last fall. SpaceX’s mainstreaming of reusable rockets “is the equivalent to the day after the invention of the railroad or the commercial airliner,” said Rick Tumlinson of SpaceFund, a venture capital firm. The reason being that reusability should greatly drive down a customer’s cost to put a
payload in orbit. With little more than cellphone components, companies could launch lots of little satellites, rather than the super expensive larger satellites of the past, Robert Jacobson writes in his 2020 book, “Space Is Open for Business.” Such companies could include service providers and manufacturers of all kinds, not just those in the TURN TO SPACE ON A11
SANDAG committed to moving tracks off Del Mar bluffs By Bill Slane
DEL MAR — The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) reaffirmed its intent to move the train tracks off the bluffs in Del Mar at a recent City Council meeting, with a study on the potential project ongoing. Since February, after the most recent major bluff collapse in Del Mar that
was precariously close to the train tracks, advocates have continued to call for the tracks’ removal — for safety, ecological and even national security reasons. SANDAG, giving a presentation to the city of Del Mar on their “5 Big Moves” project recently, says it has made that project a priority moving forward. “You can fight nature,
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but nature is going to win at the end of the day,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of SANDAG. “We are absolutely intending to have part of the regional transportation plan in May release a project that would move the tracks off the bluff once and for all. Yes, it’s expensive, yes it’s going to take a long time, but that is the
right thing to do for the region.” In March, SANDAG and the North County Transit District were given $10.5 million to help complete repairs and reinforcement from the collapse in February. But to many, reinforcement is simply not the longterm solution to the ongoing problem at the bluffs.
By Bill Slane
RANCHO REGION — The San Dieguito Union High School SFNEWS District announced Tuesday night that Superintendent Robert Haley will resign his position effective this Friday, April 30. The move was discussed during a special meeting of the SDUHSD board on Tuesday that was posted on the district’s website only the day before. The board met in closed session. However, the decision began to take shape during a regular performance review of the superintendent at a closed session meeting on Thursday, April 22, according to a source familiar with the board’s deliberations. H a le y, the source ROBERT said, for- HALEY mulated his resignation letter over the weekend. In its statement Tuesday, the board says it plans “to immediately begin a search for a new superintendent and will provide additional information regarding the search process at a future board meeting. The board looks forward to finding the next superintendent to lead the district.” The board also wished Haley well. The release from the city included no statement from Haley, who took over as superintendent in November 2018. Haley will receive a
THREE SMALL SATELLITES, the product of a collaboration among three Virginia universities, begin their science mission in Earth orbit after their successful deployment from the International Space Station on July 3, 2019. As satellites have gotten smaller, the number of those in operation has gotten bigger — dramatically — increasing by roughly 75% from 2015 to ’19. Photo courtesy of NASA
By Dan Brendel
Haley . exits as SDUHSD schools chief
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