Mexico's President is Growing Exhausted by Elon's Rocket Explosions

After a string of failed test flights and exploding rockets, Mexico has had enough of its neighboring SpaceX facility. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is threatening to sue over possible contamination from SpaceX’s rocket launches that sometimes rain bits of debris across the nearby border.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Sheinbaum said she was looking into filing the necessary lawsuits against SpaceX’s possible violations, The Guardian reported. “There is indeed contamination,” Sheinbaum told reporters, adding that she’s looking into potential violations of international laws by the company.

Last week, SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded in a massive fireball at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The rocket was undergoing routine preparations ahead of a static fire test when it suddenly erupted in flames, sending debris flying in different directions. The company reported no threat to nearby communities, but it urged the public to steer clear of the area while safety measures were being carried out. SpaceX’s town of Starbase lies near the Texas-Mexico border, with the closest Mexican town being Matamoros, located some 8 miles (13 kilometers) away.

This was the latest in a series of Starship testing mishaps that have sent rocket bits flying all over the place. In late May, the rocket broke apart during reentry after a leak led to loss of control. Earlier in March, flight 8 was cut short minutes after liftoff by a hardware failure in one of the Raptor engines. Starship exploded in the air, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt air traffic in parts of Florida. In January, Starship’s flight 7 experienced a propellant leak and fire triggered by unexpected vibrations in the propulsion system. The rocket broke apart minutes after launch, raining debris over Caribbean islands.

Local conservation groups have criticized SpaceX, arguing that the Starship rocket poses a threat to surrounding wildlife habitat in Boca Chica, Texas. Across the border in Mexico, officials are carrying out a “comprehensive review” of the environmental impacts of the rocket launches for the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, Sheinbaum said, according to The Guardian.

The Starship rocket is stirring up a fireball of trouble, and it’s not even operational yet. Once Starship passes its test flights, SpaceX is aiming for 25 launches per year from its South Texas facility. That’s a lot of rocket bits flying around.