Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rockets Could Explode Into Hawaiian Waters

It’s the Starship plans that have upset both Hawaiian residents (this is the model that reportedly blew up minutes after launch on January 16). Part of the rocket will be ejected and land in large swaths in the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, the plan states that part of the Starship rocket “may not be reused and are instead expended in the ocean.” There are several ways this could happen, according to the FAA: It could break up at terminal velocity and create an “explosive event at the surface of the water,” or a “soft water landing and tip over and sink or explode on impact at the surface of the water” or the rocket could break up on reentry and rain debris into the ocean. SpaceX estimated no more than 20 explosive events for each vehicle within the next five years. Below is a map of the proposed landing areas in the Pacific. 

It’s a massive playing field spanning thousands of miles. However, the prospect of rocket debris raining down into the ocean has received vocal opposition, particularly in Hawaii, because part of the landing area surrounds the federally protected habitat of Papahanaumokuakea, formerly known as the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. This comes days after the Biden Administration on January 2 recognized the 580,000 square miles of islands and atolls west of Hawaii as one of the largest protected areas in the country. The sanctuary hosts reefs, seamounts and wildlife found only in the Hawaiian islands, and has cultural sites that are significant to Native Hawaiians.

During a virtual meeting hosted by the FAA on January 13, SF Gate reported that the majority of public speakers opposed the project due to environmental concerns. “It looks like there’s a magical line drawn around these protected areas, where space junk is going to fall on either side of these areas and magically will not fall on the protected areas,” said Stephanie Fried, a former alternate member of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council, during public comment. “This just does not make sense.”  

The 1,350 miles of coral islands are also used by local fishers and are frequented by migrating humpback whales. Mainei Kinimaka, a surfer, filmmaker and daughter of Waimea Bay legend Titus Kinimaka said at the meeting that, “Any cultural assessment done properly in this area would easily disprove this being a decent site for dumping debris.”

Surprisingly, the FAA has not required a full new environmental impact review of the project and determined the landings “would not result in significant terrestrial habitat and wildlife or marine resource impacts,” according to Lynda Williams, a physicist and environmental activist based in Hawaii. She noted that the current analysis is based on the 2022 biological opinion that the Starship landings would cause no harm to marine mammals and critical habitats. 

But Williams believes more assessment is needed, as the past studies, “relied only on best-case scenarios, such as the assumption that Starship would completely disintegrate upon impact and detonation. Had the FAA required a full environmental impact statement, potential errors or mishaps would need to be considered.”

Written comments to the FAA are due today, January 17 and can be submitted here. To learn more about the proposal, click here or here.