This post was originally published by Blue Tomorrow. Reprinted with permission.
I’ll say this up front: I love rockets.
At age 4, I remember being glued to the black-and-white TV with my parents and grandparents as Neil Armstrong set his flickering boots on the moon. Soon after, my G.I. Joe traded his dune buggy for a Mercury Space Capsule. I lapped up Lost in Space, later Star Trek, and devoured Asimov, Heinlein, and Bradbury (S is for Space, R is for Rocket).
As a grownup, I home-schooled my two oldest sons in chemistry. The first thing we did was build rockets from paper-towel tubes and stuff them with charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate.
My favorite film is 2001: A Space Odyssey.
So you’d think I would welcome the announcement that SpaceX plans to build the world’s largest spaceport on the Louisiana coast, less than a three-hour drive from my house. I want to love this idea.
But I don’t.
To catch you up: Last month, Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced plans to invest $100 billion in a new spaceport in Louisiana’s Vermilion Parish. State officials call it the largest capital investment in Louisiana history and say it will create 3,000 direct jobs over ten years. Dubbed “Starbase Louisiana,” the facility is designed to support thousands of Starship launches a year, vastly expanding SpaceX’s capacity to put Starlink and other satellites into orbit. Like any development of this size, it raises concerns about noise and air and water pollution on this fragile coast.
Maybe those concerns can be addressed. But my trust is disintegrating faster than a misfired booster rocket.
Louisiana’s leaders are not inspiring confidence. You might think that before courting rocket launchers to the coast, state officials would seek assurances that launches can operate safely and protect residents from harm. Instead, lawmakers adopted a liability shield protecting aerospace operators like SpaceX from certain lawsuits over the very problems residents are worried about, including noise, sonic booms, smoke plumes, and rancid air.
Then there’s Elon Musk and SpaceX. Musk’s companies have repeatedly approached environmental and worker safety rules with a lack of seriousness. EPA has pursued Tesla for hazardous waste and Clean Air Act violations. According to federal authorities, Musk’s car company also illegally thwarted workers from organizing. Workplace injury rates reported at SpaceX facilities have substantially exceeded aerospace industry averages.
And we have already seen what SpaceX development can mean for a coastline. At Boca Chica, Texas, an otherwise routine SpaceX engine test in 2022 ignited a brush fire that burned 68 acres of protected wildlife habitat. The following year, the first launch of Starship tore apart a concrete launch pad, scattering sand, concrete, and other debris across hundreds of acres, including Boca Chica State Park. The rocket itself later broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico.
I’m not saying SpaceX can’t operate safely in Louisiana. I’m no rocket scientist; I don’t know. But as a regulatory expert who’s studied environmental disasters for 30 years, I can tell you that the tendency for companies to put profits over people is well documented. If you want a safe and clean environment, you have to demand it.
You want to inspire a new generation of explorers? You want to launch America’s next space age here in the Pelican State?
Then keep your protective standards high. Hold people liable when they hurt others. And defend the coast.
What good is a starship when your life support systems fail?
