New York: A slew of environmental groups have sued the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for failing to address dangers of SpaceX’s Starship rocket launch that spread plumes of potentially hazardous debris endangering human lives as well as habitats of animals.
On April 20, the first flight test of SpaceX’s fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket, built to take humanity to the Moon, Mars and beyond, exploded shortly after lift off raining dust and debris on residents in Port Isabel, Texas — a town roughly 10 km from the SpaceX launchpad, and also across Boca Chica’s beaches, which are nesting grounds for endangered animals, including birds and sea turtles.
The rocket explosion also caused a fire that burned 68 acres of the adjacent national wildlife refuge.
Environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, filed the lawsuit against the Elon Musk led SpaceX in a federal district court in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
The lawsuit said that the FAA has permitted SpaceX to launch 20 Starship/Super Heavy rockets each year for the next five years.
The rockets, which are the largest ever made, are being launched right next to “crucial habitats, putting imperilled wildlife at great risk and harming community interests”.
“Despite acknowledging the harm from SpaceX construction and launch activities, the FAA decided to forego a full environmental review, claiming the damages would not be significant due to proposed mitigation measures,” it said.
Further, the FAA hasn’t explained how mitigation would address and prevent rocket explosions and fires that could wipe out neighbouring habitat.
The suit calls for a full environmental analysis to truly protect threatened and endangered species and ensure public beach access for all people.
“It’s vital that we protect life on Earth even as we look to the stars in this modern era of spaceflight,a said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in the lawsuit.
SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site is one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America. Bird species from both the Central and Mississippi flyways converge there, making it an essential wintering and stopover habitat for migratory birds as they move north and south each year.
It is also one of the few places where the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle — the most critically endangered sea turtle in the world — comes ashore to nest on refuge beaches in the spring and summer.
Rocket launches and explosions cause significant harm through increased vehicle traffic and the intense heat, noise, and light pollution from construction and launch activities.
“Overall, we’ve lost nearly 3 billion birds from the US and Canada since 1970. For the sake of future generations, let’s protect the healthy habitats we have left instead of treating them as waste places for pollution and fuselage,” said Mike Parr, president of American Bird Conservancy.
The complaint also argues that the FAA failed to fully consider the climate harms of fueling rockets with liquid methane — a potent greenhouse pollutant that may need to be vented into the atmosphere — and other community concerns.
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