Domino’s once guaranteed that it could deliver pizzas in 30 minutes or less. The United States Air Force partnered with SpaceX in hopes of developing hypersonic rockets that could deliver 100 tons of cargo anywhere on the planet in 90 minutes or less. However, the military branch announced last Thursday that it’s suspending plans for a testing program on a remote Pacific atoll. The Air Force yielded to environmental concerns that landings could endanger native seabirds, a welcome change of pace from Elon Musk’s disregard for the impact of exploding SpaceX rockets showering the planet in debris.
The USAF planned to build two landing pads on the Johnston Atoll, roughly 800 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The pads would have accommodated ten landings per year, according to Stars And Stripes. Hypersonic rockets travel faster than five times the speed of sound or 3,800 miles per hour, so it’s a mighty tall ask for the rocket to properly decelerate and land safely. The Center for Biological Diversity, an endangered species protection non-profit, understandably sued the Air Force as well as the Fish and Wildlife Service in June for public records related to the project. The atoll is a protected seabird refuge.
Musk joked before about his rockets killing wildlife
SpaceX has a history of disregarding environmental concerns as it rushes forward with an unprecedented number of launches. The private space company faced scrutiny from the New York Times last year. The newspaper detailed how a Starship launch reduced a nest of a fragile migratory bird species to a yellow smear of egg yolk and destroyed nine nests in total. It wasn’t a one-off incident, but a worrying trend at SpaceX’s Texas facility. In response, Musk posted on X, “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”
Musk’s contempt isn’t exclusive to wildlife, as other human beings are also on the setlist. SpaceX’s unsuccessful Starship launches have showered the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos with debris. The company didn’t assist in the cleanup, leaving the developing nations to cover the bill on their own. Even airlines have to shift their schedules on late notice to avoid sending flights directly into a hailstorm of SpaceX parts. Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, but he’s creating a nightmare here on Earth.