--- title: "Investigation Finds Elon Musk’s SpaceX Used Trickery to Open Rocket Facility" description: "There's a death toll associated with SpaceX's success — and the Elon Musk-owned company played the government to make that success happen. " date: "2024-07-08" modified: "2024-07-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/investigation-elon-musk-rocket-testing" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "FAA" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Investigation Finds Elon Musk’s SpaceX Used Trickery to Open Rocket Facility ![There's a death toll associated with SpaceX's success — and the Elon Musk-owned company played the government to make that success happen. ]() *\Image: Marc Piasecki via Getty / Futurism\* ## Death Note There's a wildlife death toll associated with SpaceX's success — and the Elon Musk-owned company seems to have played the government to make that success happen. In a [new investigation](), the *New York Times* found 19 instances of environmental damage since 2019 at SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas launch facility, with the rockets tested there unleashing powerful explosions that litter the surrounding wildlife refuge with debris and decimate the habitats of the animals nesting there. Initially, SpaceX's plans for the Lower Rio Grande Valley were based on the launch of its less-powerful Falcon 9 rockets, the *NYT* found, and the Federal Aviation Administration's ensuing environmental impact study only took those spacecraft into account. Once the company's plans for the much-larger Starship were made public, the FAA said it was going to do another study — but then reversed course, deciding without having done an investigation that the uber-powerful rockets would be unlike to do damage to the "continued existence" of wildlife there. As the most recent Starship launch test shows, that assessment seems to be incorrect. That latest launch, the newspaper notes, resulted in charred grasslands, strewn sheet metal and insulation, and the destruction of all nine of the recorded bird nests nearby. Apparently that sort of devastation occurs during many of the [rocket's launches](). ## Agency vs. Agency According to George Nield, a former top FAA space official who now runs his own private commercial space enterprise, SpaceX is merely "leveraging" federally-protected land. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has sometimes considered the company's launches [overly destructive]() to nearby habitats and has [used its powers]() to slow the company's progress. "What can we do to maximize SpaceX’s bold, grand vision?" Nield recalled to the *NYT*. "Fish and Wildlife has a mission. But it was different from ours and it did not include a lot of rockets." All the same, the [FAA did famously order SpaceX]() not to undertake a Starship launch in December 2020 — though when Musk flagrantly violated that order, the agency allowed SpaceX to conduct its own investigation into what happened and did not, as the paper notes, make the results of that self-probe public. Though Fish and Wildlife has, too, ended up [signing off on SpaceX's exploits](), it has seemingly ended up acting as the enforcer even as the FAA has repeatedly granted the company pardons, the *NYT*'s investigation demonstrates. With the two agencies seemingly at odds, SpaceX has, clearly, gotten the upper hand — and with Musk bragging that he [wants to build 1,000 Starships]() within the next decade, the local environment in Boca Chica is slated to be the biggest loser. **More on SpaceX:** [*SpaceX Pays for Rocket Parts That Fell to Farm of Canadian, Who Vows to Use Money to Pay for Hockey Rink*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()