SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday mocked reports of wildlife being impacted by the company’s recent Starship launch, saying he will refrain from having omelets to make up for the damage.
What Happened: A media report earlier this week said that a team from SpaceX, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a conservation group surveyed the surrounding migratory bird habitat following the latest Starship flight test from Starbase in Texas and discovered significant environmental damage, including destroyed bird nests and debris scattered across public lands.
“To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week,” Musk said, mocking the report and dismissing the claims of environmental damage as just a few destroyed bird nests.
The report Musk referred to, however, details other environmental concerns surrounding SpaceX’s operations, including 19 instances of fires, leaks, explosions, and other problems since 2019.
SpaceX last launched Starship in the first half of June. During the test, the two stages of the vehicle – the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster – separated and the booster subsequently had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The spacecraft ignited its engines and went into space, made a controlled re-entry to Earth, and had a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The entire flight lasted one hour and six minutes from launch. The key object of the flight was to re-enter Earth and the mission achieved it while withstanding damage to the vehicle.
Why It Matters: Earlier this month, Musk said that the fifth flight of the Starship will be in the next 4 weeks, pegging the next launch for around Aug. 2.
The goal for the next test flight is to catch the booster back at Starbase using the launch tower’s mechanical arms, marking a significant demonstration of Starship's reusability.
Starship is touted as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, standing 121 meters tall and weighing approximately 5,000 tonnes. SpaceX is expected to have at least six test flights of the Starship this year, according to Musk’s latest estimate from March.
NASA is currently relying on the success of Starship to land humans back on the moon as part of its Artemis program. The last crewed lunar mission occurred in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
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