Unlike airports, spaceports don’t have launches every day, and the overall likelihood of a disaster and damage from debris is low. Like Cape Canaveral in Florida-and most other launch sites-SpaceX’s Boca Chica spaceport lies on the coast, which can mitigate potential environmental problems for populated areas and land animals if a rocket explodes over the ocean. We are concerned that they may create terrible destruction and debris landing on wildlife refuges and on the beach and wetlands,” says Bill Berg, a board member of a local environmental group, Save RGV, referring to the Rio Grande Valley.
“Accidents and explosions are, unfortunately, just part of the testing procedure.
The company is now in the process of upgrading its infrastructure to support launches of the much bigger combination of its Starship capsule and Super Heavy rocket booster.īut not everyone who lives nearby is happy about the prospect of a larger site footprint and more massive launches. In 2014, the Federal Aviation Administration assessed and approved SpaceX’s Boca Chica site for launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, but the company has dramatically expanded its plans for the site since then. (“At least the crater is in the right place!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted.) Some of SN11’s predecessors have met the same fate, and others have blown up on the launchpad, never making it off the ground. In an industry that goes by the old chestnut “Space is hard,” failures come with the territory. But as it descended, it abruptly exploded, raining debris from the sky.
On a foggy day in March, a prototype of SpaceX’s giant silver rocket known as Starship, dubbed Serial Number 11 or SN11, was supposed to reorient itself vertically while landing and deftly touch down on a pad at the company’s launch site near Boca Chica, Texas, a couple miles from the Mexico border.