BOCA CHICA, Texas — When Elon Musk’s Starship, the largest rocket ever built, lifted off last month, the launch was hailed as a giant leap for SpaceX and the U.S. civilian space program.
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Two hours later, a team from SpaceX, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a conservation group began exploring the fragile migratory bird habitat surrounding the launch site. The launch had sparked a massive explosion of mud, rocks and fiery debris on public lands around Musk’s $3 billion space complex. A small fire charred a patch of grassland. None of the nine nests recorded by a nonprofit group before the launch had survived intact.
The outcome was part of a well-documented pattern.
The operations of SpaceX have caused fires, leaks, explosions or other problems associated with the rapid growth of Musk’s complex by at least 19 times since 2019. These incidents have caused environmental damage and reflect a broader debate about how to balance technological and economic progress with the protection of delicate ecosystems and local communities.
That tension is heightened by Musk’s influence over U.S. space aspirations. Members of Congress and Biden administration officials are concerned about Musk’s power as the government increasingly relies on SpaceX for commercial space operations and for its plans to travel to the Moon and even Mars.
An examination of Musk’s tactics shows how he exploited the limitations and competing missions of the various agencies. Those charged with protecting the area’s cultural and natural resources repeatedly lost out to more powerful agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Gary Henry, a former SpaceX adviser, said the company was aware of the complaints and was committed to addressing them.
The Boca Chica project, SpaceX told local officials, would have a “small, environmentally friendly footprint.” But from the beginning, Musk’s plan was to use federal and state lands next to the small property the company initially purchased, knowing that mishaps would likely send debris flying.
“We have a lot of land with no one around, so if it blows up, it’s not a problem,” Musk said at a press conference in 2018.
When Musk first started talking about his desire to build a spacecraft to go to Mars, the area near Brownsville, Texas, was an attractive option. The small private property was surrounded mostly by state parks and federal wildlife refuges. Still, people lived nearby and tourists visited the parks. Musk’s plan would require evacuation of the parks and residential areas at every launch.
This part of Texas is protected as an important bird habitat. Nearly 500 bird species have been documented, including rare or threatened birds. The nearby Boca Chica beach is a breeding area for the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered species of sea turtle in the world.
Musk presented a plan to local and federal officials to use Boca Chica as another launch site for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Initially, the company told officials that any construction would be modest, costing only about $50 million and creating about 150 jobs. Privately, Musk was already planning something bigger, interviews and documents reveal.
Starship, as the new rocket would be called, dwarfs the largest version of the Falcon and weighs nearly four times as much. Its first-stage engines produce 16 million pounds of thrust — more than double the power of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket that powered NASA’s Apollo moon missions.
The FAA did conduct an environmental impact study, but it was based on Musk’s original proposal. After Starship’s plans became public, the FAA decided it could legally consider the environmental impact of the launch pad and control center operations, but not the rocket factory.
SpaceX’s overall rocket manufacturing and testing facilities now cover some 350 acres acquired over time.
Ultimately, the FAA determined that SpaceX’s activities were unlikely to endanger the “continued existence” of any threatened species or damage critical habitat.
Even as SpaceX was publicly talking about using only Falcon rockets at Boca Chica, the company had told the FAA it intended to install a flame-deflecting system to prevent damage to the launch pad and mute the rocket’s roar. No such system was finished by the time SpaceX conducted a test in April 2023.
Steel sheets, chunks of concrete and shrapnel shot thousands of feet into the air, crashing into the bird habitat, the state park and the beach. Then the rocket failed. An automated self-destruct system caused it to explode.
The FAA opened a mishap investigation, relying on SpaceX and its consultants to do most of the work. The FAA generated a list of 63 corrective actions that SpaceX needed to address. SpaceX agreed to this, and the agency eventually gave the green light for another launch.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has launched an investigation into damage to eggs in nests caused by the June launch, said Aubry Buzek, a spokeswoman. She said the agency was working with SpaceX and others “to reduce impacts to wildlife and public lands.”
George Nield, the FAA’s top space launch official when SpaceX sought approval for the site, acknowledged there could be gaps in the environmental review process. But he believes SpaceX is “leveraging” government land, not exploiting it.
“What can we do to maximize SpaceX’s big, bold vision?” Nield said, recalling the FAA’s goal. “Fish and Wildlife has a mission. But it was different than ours and didn’t involve a lot of rockets.”
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