Debris from Elon Musk’s Space X studied for environmental impact

The Space X rocket was in the news last week when it exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.

What wasn’t reported was the impact the rocket, which Elon Musk hoped would not explode on the launchpad, has had on the environment.

When the rocket launched last Thursday in South Texas. it sent great clouds of pulverised concrete over a nearby small town of Port Isabel. It also led to chunks of concrete and pieces of metal thousands of feet away and started a fire on nearby grounds.

The blast-off took place next to a national wildlife refuge near Boca Chica Beach, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service said no dead birds or wildlife were found on the land affected by the launch.

But Environmentalists have taken the report as an indication that a more in-depth study of the environmental impact of rocket launches should be carried out before there are any more at Boca Chica.

Jared Margolis, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity said “They contemplated debris from these launches, but not part of the launchpad itself being blown out miles away and scattered across the landscape. What happened is not what they anticipated.”

Despite Space X’s rocket blowing up the mission was hailed as a success. The company said it was satisfied that Starship had got off the ground and that it had provided a valuable source of data for the spacecraft’s further development.