In May, SpaceX insisted that it had found “no evidence of any floating or deceased marine life that would signal (rocket) booster debris impact harmed animals in the vicinity” of the crash site in the waters off the Gulf Coast.
The company has also separately said that Starship launches present “no hazards to the surrounding communities in the Rio Grande Valley.”
“Previous independent tests conducted on materials inside Starship, including toxicity analyses, confirm they pose no chemical, biological, or toxicological risks,” the company has stated.
But not everyone is convinced or appeased by SpaceX’s assertions.
There’s no question that the copmany’s presence in South Texas is formidable. SpaceX’s operations now span miles of roadways, have frequently shut down beach access, and the noise and debris associated with Starship’s explosive failures have rankled environmentalists.
Experts in the US are concerned about the sonic booms, which can be as violent as a small earthquake. Local activists are concerned about migratory birds that have long relied on the area, including the snowy plover, a species that’s rapidly declined, according to environmentalists.
And an NGO in Mexico has documented melted plastics, aluminum and pieces of blue adhesive strewn across the sands of Tamaulipas’ Bagdad beach, spurring concerns about threats to wildlife such as Kemp’s ridley turtles, an endangered species.
“There is vegetation that the last explosion burned, the entire edge of the Rio Bravo, and the pipes broke many trees, which fell near a small population of people,” said Jesús Elías Ibarra, founder of Conibio Global.
