Five environmental and cultural groups have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration for allowing SpaceX's most recent launch without proper review.
On April 20, the company's Starship Super Heavy test flight blew up its launch pad. The largest rocket ever built in the Boca Chica, Texas facility sent concrete and metal into the surrounding, sensitive habitat. Particulate matter spread throughout the environment, igniting a 3.5 acre wildfire on nearby state park land.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the American Bird Conservancy, SurfRider Foundation, Save Rio Grande Valley, and the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas filed the lawsuit Monday in Washington D.C., alleging that the FAA did not properly review the environmental impact of the launch before approving it.
The organizations wrote: “The FAA failed to take the requisite hard look at the proposed project and has concluded that significant adverse effects will not occur due to purported mitigation measures.”
The companies noted that in June 2020, the FAA's chief of Staff for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation was planning to perform an environmental impact statement, but “based on SpaceX’s preference,” instead decided to use “a considerably less thorough analysis."
Because of the nearby SpaceX facility, state parks and nearby areas have frequently been closed to the public and neighboring Indigenous tribes. In 2021, Boca Chica Beach was closed for over 500 hours, with “beach or access point closure occurring on over 100 separate days.”
This, the groups argue, “infringes upon the ability of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas to access lands and waters that are part of their ancestral heritage."
Over the weekend, SpaceX owner Elon Musk said on Twitter Spaces: “To the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we’re aware of.” An FAA spokesperson told NBC that the agency "does not comment on ongoing litigation matters.”
