BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas USA -- A representative from Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, an amateur rocket club, a spaceport development corporation and land owners are hoping to put some space between themselves after a recent launch that had some club members venturing onto private property seeking downed craft.

After the launches last weekend, land owners, avid bird watchers and cattle barons are asking the club and the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport Development Corp. to move their launches further from the refuge and private property.

The Houston-based Tripoli [Houston] Rocketry Association had an amateur rocket launch last weekend for the first time at the open-plained site of the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport off FM 2004 near Demi-John Island.

Tripoli members had permission to use the site from David Stedman, president and CEO of the spaceport board.

The launch pad used last weekend is located several hundred yards from Entrance Road, which is part of the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.

After Sunday’s launches resulted in the rockets landing near the road and private property, future launches should be moved further back in the future, said Jennifer Sanchez, deputy project leader for the refuge complex.

“We cannot have an impact on refuge visitors,” she said. “I have safety concerns with a rocket coming down on a visitor.”

The owner of the land adjacent to the spaceport property was angered by the Tripoli members walking on his property in search of their rockets, Sanchez said. The land owner did not return calls seeking comment.

Members of the Tripoli club say only one person actually walked onto private property Sunday and quickly left the property when he realized it was not Spaceport land. Last weekend’s launches were done in part to learn about the site.

“He had a radio tracker on it, and he just got confused,” said Dave Bachelder of Lake Jackson, vice president of Tripoli. “The shake-down launch was to learn, and we learned we need to be further from the road.”

The Tripoli members were not acting in bad faith, and the movement on private property was not intentional, Stedman said.

“Everybody that was out there was on their best behavior,” he said.

Those who called to complain about the launches last weekend were not supportive of the Tripoli club being out there in the first place, he said.

“For anyone that got upset, they were looking to get upset,” he said.

Future launches at the site hopefully will be further away from the road and from private property, Bachelder said.

“The next time we set up out there, it will be further south and hopefully further west,” he said.

Tripoli chose to use the site because it is hard to find wide-open spaces to conduct launches, he said.

“We think it’s a great site, but we need to work out a few bugs,” he said.

The next launch for the club is tentatively set for the second weekend of January, Bachelder said.

Sanchez said she and Stedman would meet next week to discuss the future location of the launches.

“It’s not an ‘us or them’ thing,” Sanchez said.