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within 1,000 feet of heliports; and within five miles of an airport. Drones would also be prohibited over state parks and wildlife refuges, and within 500 feet of the State Capitol. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Jackson’s SB 142, which would have created a 350-foot no-fly zone over residential properties, as well as extend trespassing laws to drone operators.
PEOPLE
pau l wellm an photos
J.J. Hollister (pictured), whose family name is synonymous with Santa Barbara ranching, a law firm, street names, and a California city, died peacefully on the afternoon of 1/14 at the age of 83. John James Hollister III is remembered as a gentleman with a strong sense of civic duty, who made it possible for the county’s land trust to acquire his 782acre Arroyo Hondo ranch for $6.3 million as a natural and historic preserve in 2001. A graduate of Stanford University and
Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, Hollister cofounded Hollister & Brace in 1966 with William Brace. He had lived at Arroyo Hondo, where he and his wife, Barbara, were married in 1970, for many years in an adobe built by the Ortega family. In 2011, he donated to a marine wildlife rescue group the last 2.8 acres left of the 140,000-acre ranch his great-grandfather, W.W. Hollister, had assembled with partners between Refugio and Pt. Conception. n
Media flocked to see the 14-story Falcon 9 rocket before liftoff.
close, but No cigar The thick fog that made for a loud but unspectacular rocket launch Sunday from Vandenberg Air Force Base may also have contributed to the failed landing of the SpaceX rocket on a floating barge 200 miles off the coast. “Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one [of] the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing,” tweeted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after releasing dramatic video footage of the rocket touching down, collapsing, and exploding. “Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff.” The morning launch — first and foremost a science mission that successfully deposited a U.S.-European ocean-monitoring satellite into orbit — was the latest attempt by the private space company to reduce launch costs by reusing rockets rather than letting them fall into the ocean. Last month, SpaceX made history when it landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets at Cape Canaveral after it deployed a payload of commercial satellites. Sunday was the company’s third failed attempt at a barge landing, a key component of its boosterrecycling program for when terrestrial touchdowns aren’t physically possible. SpaceX could have landed back at Vandenberg, company officials have said, but didn’t receive the necessary environmental approvals in time for this week’s launch. The Santa Barbara County military base and the public roads around it teemed with spectators excited to witness the Hawthorne-based company reach another milestone in its quest to put people on Mars in the next 10-20 years. Though most of them left disappointed by the zero-visibility conditions, Musk — who watched onsite from an undisclosed location — was characteristically upbeat about how things went. “Well, at least the pieces were bigger this time!” he quipped via Twitter, referencing rockets that were practically vaporized during previous tests. He predicted a landing success rate of around 70 percent in 2016, and 90 percent in 2017. — Tyler Hayden
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THE INDEPENDENT
jaNuary 21, 2016
independent.com