Investigation shows that Elon Musk’s SpaceX used tricks when opening a rocket facility

And he got away with it.

Death notice

SpaceX’s success has been accompanied by numerous deaths in the animal world – and the company owned by Elon Musk appears to have exploited the government to make that success possible.

In a new study New York Times Since 2019, 19 cases of environmental damage have been identified at the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The rockets tested there triggered violent explosions that littered the surrounding wildlife sanctuary with debris and destroyed the habitat of the animals nesting there.

Originally, SpaceX’s plans for the lower Rio Grande Valley were based on launching its less powerful Falcon 9 rockets, the NYT and the subsequent Federal Aviation Administration environmental impact study only included these spacecraft.

After the company’s plans for the much larger Starship were made public, the FAA announced it would conduct another study, but then reversed course and decided, without prior investigation, that the extremely powerful rockets were unlikely to harm the “continuity” of the local wildlife.

As Starship’s latest launch test shows, that assessment appears to be wrong. The last launch, the paper said, resulted in charred grassland, scattered sheet metal and insulation, and the destruction of all nine nearby bird nests. This type of devastation apparently occurs with many rocket launches.

Agency vs. Agency

According to George Nield, a former senior FAA space official who now runs his own private commercial space company, SpaceX is merely “exploiting” federally protected lands. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has at times believed the company’s launches were excessively destructive to surrounding habitats and used its authority to slow the company’s progress.

“What can we do to maximize SpaceX’s bold, big vision?” Nield recalled to the NYT. “Fish and Wildlife has a mission. But it was different than ours and didn’t involve many missiles.”

Nevertheless, the FAA famously ordered SpaceX not to conduct a Starship launch in December 2020. However, when Musk blatantly violated that order, the agency allowed SpaceX to conduct its own investigation into the incidents without, as the newspaper notes, making the results of that self-investigation public.

Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FAA) has also approved SpaceX’s services, it ultimately appears to be acting as an enforcer, even though the FAA has repeatedly granted the company pardons. NYTThe investigation shows.

With the two agencies apparently at loggerheads, SpaceX has clearly gained the upper hand—and with Musk boasting about building 1,000 spaceships within the next decade, the environment in Boca Chica will be the biggest loser.

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