SpaceX’s high-profile rocket explosion on April 20 has angered environmental and civil rights groups, who are furious at the extent of the damage inflicted on the local environment in Texas. The blast caused significant pollution that affected local communities and could threaten endangered species on Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, Texas. Some experts say the whole scenario could likely have been avoided if the aerospace company had installed a flame diverter, or flame trench, a long duct built into the ground beneath the launch pad that conducts heat and energy away from the rocket.
Prior to this disaster, several organizations in the Rio Grande Valley community issued a strongly worded press release against SpaceX launches like this one.
During SpaceX’s first orbital test flight at around 8:30 a.m. that day, the American aerospace company launched a rocket called the Starship from its private launch pad in South Texas. About four minutes into the flight, it became necessary to press the self-destruct button to avert a major catastrophe. It immediately shattered into a ball of fire and smoke. It was the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed (emphasis on “was”).
The initial plan called for the rocket to go into suborbital flight for about an hour and 17 minutes, making a nearly full orbit before landing somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. While the launch was successful, it caused extensive damage to the launch pad and five of its engines failed. It reached about 24 miles (39 kilometers) before its altitude began to decrease, it began to spin, and its flight termination system activated. The flight lasted about four minutes before the spacecraft was destroyed. Nobody was injured.
Many people immediately took to social media to sting Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, chairman and chief technology officer. While the launch was not considered a complete defeat by the company (explosions are still uncommon in missile testing), the extreme damage caused by this could probably have been prevented with a flame deflector, a structure that fits under a missile launch pad. which channels the extreme heat and exhaust fumes of a rocket in a controlled manner. The lack of a flame diverter scorched the landscape and plant life near the missile launch site, post-launch images show.
“A billionaire is closing down our beach to use the land to test his experimental technology, which is putting local lives on the line while destroying a major wildlife sanctuary.”
The company seems to have had some confidence that not having a flame diverter was a bad idea. In an October 2020 tweet, Musk wrote “I aspire to not having a flame diverter in Boca, but that could prove to be a mistake.” It seems he was right.
SpaceX called the detonation a “quick unscheduled disassembly” — a joke that’s been made in this industry since at least the ’60s, a tongue-in-cheek way of saying “that looked expensive.” But the company had reason to celebrate. The rocket left the launch pad, providing valuable data for refining the next flight. After the launch, SpaceX was congratulated by many in the aerospace world, including the NASA administrator Bill Nelson and Director General of the European Space Agency Joseph Aschbacher. According to the New York Times, one employee even showered his colleagues with a bottle of champagne.
But the community living near the launch site has dealt with the aftermath of the launch in both senses of the word. The explosion essentially obliterated the launch pad, Carving a huge crater and chunks of concrete, sheet steel, and other debris were hurled into the sea at Boca Chica Beach. A Dodge Caravan was smashed with debris scattered over 385 acres, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, causing a fire that burned 3.5 acres on land at Boca Chica State Park.
Plumes of ash and particulate matter rained down on residents of Port Isabel, about six miles away, settling on homes, cars and roads, and shattering several windows. It’s not clear if the particulate matter is dangerous to breathe or touch, or if it pollutes floors. An FAA environmental assessment of the spacecraft notes that some stages of the rocket used kerosene as a fuel, which is poisonous to breathe. The assessment also notes over 100 gallons of hydraulic fluid in the rocket, which is often dangerous.
Salon reached out to SpaceX to ask why, among other things, the launch pad didn’t have a flame diverter; SpaceX did not respond to Salon’s request for comment.
A Port Isabel resident, Sharon Almaguer, told the New York Times the situation was “appalling” and described locals as “sacrificed”.
“He just wanted to get this thing airborne,” Almaguer said of Musk. “Everyone else is kind of doomed.”
Prior to this disaster, several organizations in the Rio Grande Valley community issued a strongly worded press release against SpaceX launches like this one. On April 19, 27 organizations, including the Sierra Club, Voces Unidas and the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, signed a letter expressing concern that the aerospace company’s activities were “violating wildlife sanctuaries and sacred lands of the… Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas and will threaten communities in the Rio Grande Valley with explosion risks.”
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“A billionaire is closing our beach to use the land to test his experimental technology that is putting local lives on the line while destroying a vast wildlife sanctuary,” Emma Guevara, Brownsville organizer of the Sierra Club, said in one Explanation. “Who will be held responsible for the destruction this company continually causes if the government continues to ignore the very real and very serious concerns of community members?”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that regulates all aspects of US civil aviation, is currently conducting an “accident investigation” to determine whether future flights pose a risk to public safety. Until the investigation is complete, all future test flights at SpaceX have been halted, which the agency says is standard practice when something of this magnitude goes wrong.
Though that’s a pretty big setback, NASA’s head, Nelson, told Congress Thursday that he expects SpaceX to be operational again in about two months. Nonetheless, Nelson said this blast could set back the Artemis III mission, which is scheduled to send a human crew to the lunar surface in 2025; However, nothing threatens the mission more than budget cuts.
Like it or not, SpaceX is one of the biggest contributors to space exploration right now, with NASA being one of their biggest customers. Those Starship missiles can’t just take us back to the moonbut might set one day people on Mars. But their local impact is just as important, if not more so. We can go into space with far less destruction on our own territory.
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