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By Eric Lipton
Photos via Meridith Kohut
Reporting from Boca Chica, Texas
While Elon Musk’s Starship, the largest rocket ever made, took to the skies last month, the launch was hailed as a major step forward for SpaceX and America’s civil space program.
Two hours later, once the situations were deemed safe, a team from SpaceX, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A U. S. Department of Homeland Security and a conservation organization began examining the fragile migratory bird habitat surrounding the release site.
The effect was obvious.
The release had sparked a massive explosion of burning mud, rocks and debris on public lands surrounding the $3 billion M complex. Musk. Pieces of steel sheeting and insulation were scattered across expanses of sand on one side of a national park. The fire had burned, leaving a charred area in the park’s meadows, remnants of the takeoff that burned 7. 5 million pounds of gas.
The most disturbing thing for one of the members of the entourage was the yellow stain on the ground where a bird’s nest had been the day before. None of the nine nests recorded through the nonprofit Coastal Bend Bays program
The egg yolk now stained the ground.
“All the nests have been destroyed or eggs are missing,” Justin LeClaire, a biologist from Coastal Bend, told a fish and an inspector, as a New York Times reporter observed nearby.
The resulting component of a well-documented pattern.
In at least 19 events since 2019, SpaceX’s operations have had fires, leaks, explosions, or other issues similar to the immediate expansion of the M complex. Musk in Boca Chica. These incidents have environmental damage and reflect a broader debate about how to balance technology. and economic progress with the coverage of sensitive ecosystems and local communities.
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