A Space X test flight went spectacularly wrong last month when the Starship craft exploded in the skies above the Caribbean. The explosion littered the sky with debris and looked fresh from a Michael Bay film, but the fallout has been less glamorous for the residents of one tropical island nation who have been left clearing up the space junk that now litters their beaches.
At the time of the explosion, the debris that covered the sky forced flights in the area to delay or divert for safety, and now the impact of the test on Caribbean locals is becoming clear. On the British islands of Turks and Caicos, residents are clearing up spacecraft chunks and other debris that has turned up near homes, businesses and beaches, reports Futurism.
Residents of the archipelago, which comprises around 40 islands, report finding fallen wires, tiles from the Starship craft and all manner of space junk in the days following the explosion. Now, the nation is calling on Space X “to come pick this up,” as Futurism reports:
“I’m into the launches and what Musk is doing,” Amos Lucker, the owner of a Providenciales car rental service, told CNN, “but I think he should be liable for the cleanup, too.”
After the test flight explosion, SpaceX implored people to report debris and not to touch or pick up any pieces because they may be hazardous. According to Kaine, the Providenciales resident, that statement didn’t make its way to her until after she’d already begun cleaning up fragments.
Attempting to do the right thing, the woman called SpaceX’s hotline to report what she’d found. The company took a week to respond, she says, ultimately saying that it would be days before anyone could come check it out — and as of CNN’s press time, Kaine still had more than 200 pounds of Starship pieces stored in her garage.
SpaceX has met with representatives from Turks and Caicos, including the nation’s disaster management team and UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, reports local news outlet the Sun. The outlet reported that the only advice to come out of the meeting was that residents should wear gloves when collecting SpaceX’s junk. Helpful, I know.
Just a reminder, the folk who live on these islands make an average of under $30,000, and SpaceX, despite being headed by the richest man on Earth, expects them to clean up after its mess.
The company’s response to the falling trash has irked residents, who say there wasn’t sufficient communication between Space X and the region about the risks of the flight, reports CNN. The Elon Musk-backed space company was asked by the Federal Aviation Administration to set up a potential hazard area should the launch go south, as CNN explains:
In its statement to CNN, the FAA said that the Turks and Caicos government was made aware prior to the Starship launch that the nation was located within a possible hazard area.
The agency also said that, before the test flight launched, it required SpaceX to map out “hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million.”
“No Caribbean islands, including Turks and Caicos, exceeded this threshold,” the agency said.
The company’s calculations were at least correct, as no injuries were reported on the island as a result of the falling debris, but there is at least one report of property damage. There is, of course, the environmental impact of all this debris on delicate coastal ecosystems to consider, and there have been warnings about the impact the explosion could have had on the atmosphere.
Space X follows a controversial “rapid iterative development” process, which sees it test new ideas in the field rather than the lab. This practice will no doubt continue until Musk’s company reaches Mars, which means this probably won’t be the last rocket to explode mid-air.
It is long past time for the company to face tougher scrutiny over its launch plans and the chances of disasters like this recurring. That’s probably not going to happen now that Musk basically owns the government and all of the regulatory bodies meant to keep him in check.