Wildlife officials say the SpaceX launch left a trail of significant damage

Launching SpaceX’s Starship this past April was an amazing experience big success. Yes, the missile ship exploded, which at the time was the focus of most criticism. But, as the experts pointed out, it was planned Part of the historic achievement of Elon Musk’s heavily backed space exploration company.

However, the true failure of SpaceX’s Starship is now beginning to be fully revealed in the months following launch.

according to New report by bloombergThe spacecraft’s launch left a trail of devastating devastation to the local environment, U.S. Wildlife officials reported after investigating the site shortly after launch. The media obtained these reports by US Fish and Wildlife Service biologists via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Wildlife officials noted that when surveying the scene after Starship’s launch, they found chunks of concrete throughout the area and deep craters on the tidal flats. The report states that four acres of a nearby Texas state park burned. A group of blue ground crabs and seven partridge quail eggs were ‘burned’ at release.

Overall, the resulting explosion left “a 385-acre debris field that hurled chunks of concrete up to 2,680 feet from the launch pad and sparked a 3.5-acre fire.”

He’s been there they For years the proximity of the SpaceX rocket base has been surrounded by endangered species, including the nesting beach of loggerhead sea turtles. group of environmental groups sued The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) criticized SpaceX’s launch in April, claiming that the agency failed to conduct a proper environmental review. As for the affected species, US wildlife biologists have not found any dead or endangered animals.

However, the biologists note that their investigation of this has been greatly hampered by SpaceX. Wildlife officials were not allowed into the site area until a full 48 hours after the spacecraft launched. This means that any potential animal life killed could have been previously removed from the site, washed away by currents, or eaten by other animals before experts could properly document its effects.

Much of the damage was caused by a deliberate decision by SpaceX that apparently baffled experts in the documents. SpaceX has not used flame suppression technology such as a flame diverter or flame trench, which is an industry standard that redirects energy away from a rocket ship. Without it, the spacecraft tore a hole in the ground beneath it, which then destroyed its launch pad.

The FAA is currently reviewing the launch investigation and has paused further attempts. But a Wildlife official noted in the documents that SpaceX likely won’t be ready for another launch anytime soon.

“The pillow site has been completely destroyed and will likely force them to redesign the whole thing,” the official wrote. “We likely won’t see another launch for a while.”