By: Olivia Ho

Elon Musk is known for his ambitious ideas that brought his power, wealth, and motivation. Lately, his ambitions have been constantly criticized and restricted by officials as the promises he made were broken.

Elon Musk made the design of the largest rocket ever made and launched it into the sky successfully. This was considered a great step for civilian space exploration efforts, but the side effects of it on South Texas were drastic.

After the launch, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services were shocked by the effects. The wildlife near the area was almost destroyed. Mud, stones, and even fiery debris flew and landed in areas that are open to the public, not on Elon Musk’s property.

There were sheets of metal and building materials scattered around, even in a state park. A fire had also started burning the vegetation which was the result of burning 7.5 million pounds of fuel.

How the idea of the Starship came to be used many resources and was bigger when compared to the other rockets that had been made before. As the F.A.A went over SpaceX’s plans to launch the Starship, the Fish and Wildlife officials were not happy with it and said the impact from the launch would be lethal to the environment.

There were fifteen Starship flight tests, and just from these tests it drastically impacted the area. When SpaceX got its eighth test off the ground, the test was working however when it was expected to land peacefully it exploded on the way down. Elon Musk was happy with the results unlike the Fish and Wildlife officials and the F.A.A.

First, SpaceX was strictly told that they were not allowed to launch the rocket but it was done anyway. It was said that the launch had potential risks like potentially damaging the homes even far from the area. Fish and Wildlife officials were infuriated by the launch and were questioning the F.A.A. for their authority over SpaceX and what they were going to do about it.

SpaceX does a lot for working on space travel even if it’s legally held back. This just shows how much power it has and how it can escape the many amount of charges held against them for persuading space exploration regardless of the case.

Image Credit by Space