Disastrous SpaceX launch under federal investigation after raining potentially hazardous debris on homes and beaches

Published

2 years ago

April 26, 2023

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SpaceX’s Starship has been grounded by the U.S. government following claims that the rocket’s explosive first launch spread plumes of potentially hazardous debris over homes and the habitats of endangered animals.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — the U.S. civil aviation regulator — has stopped SpaceX from conducting any further launches until it has concluded a “mishap investigation” into Starship’s April 20 test launch. The massive rocket’s dramatic flight began by punching a crater into the concrete beneath the launchpad and ended when the giant rocket exploded in mid-air around 4 minutes later.

Dust and debris from the test reportedly rained down on residents in Port Isabel, Texas — a town roughly 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the launchpad — and across Boca Chica’s beaches, which are nesting grounds for endangered animals, including birds and sea turtles.

Related: Geomagnetic storm sends 40 SpaceX satellites plummeting to Earth

Dave Cortez (opens in new tab) , a chapter director for the Sierra Club environmental advocacy group, said that Port Isabel residents reported broken windows in their businesses and ash-like particles covering their homes and schools.

SpaceX’s launchpad was also left with extensive damage that includes charred, twisted metal and shattered concrete. The force from the rocket’s engines blew a hole in the launchpad and created a crater beneath it. “Concrete shot out into the ocean,” Cortez told CNBC (opens in new tab) , creating shrapnel that “risked hitting the fuel storage tanks which are these silos adjacent to the launch pad.”

Debris surrounding Starship’s launch pad at Boca Chica, Texas. (Image credit: Patrick Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Unlike other launch sites for large rockets, SpaceX’s Boca Chica site lacks both a deluge system, which floods pads with shockwave-suppressing water or foam, and a flame trench to safely channel burning exhaust away.

“Aspiring to have no flame diverter in Boca, but this could turn out to be a mistake,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote in an October 2020 tweet.

The FAA’s mishap investigation is standard practice when rockets go astray. The FAA’s investigation will need to conclude that Starship does not affect public safety before it can launch again. As debris spread far further than anticipated, the FAA’s “anomaly response plan” has also come into force, meaning SpaceX must complete extra “environmental mitigations” before reapplying for its launch license.

Musk wrote on Twitter that SpaceX began work on “a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount” three months prior to the launch, but it wasn’t ready in time.

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Standing at 394 feet (120 meters) tall and propelled by a record-breaking 16.5 million pounds (7.5 million kilograms) of thrust, SpaceX’s Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Able to carry 10 times the payload of SpaceX’s current Falcon 9 rockets, Starship was designed to transport crew members, spacecraft, satellites and cargo to locations in the solar system.

After blasting off from its launchpad at Boca Chica, Starship climbed to a maximum altitude of 24 miles (39 km) before problems with as many as eight of the rocket’s 33 Raptor 2 engines caused Starship to flip and roll, leading SpaceX to order the rocket to self-destruct.

Despite the rocket’s unexpectedly messy takeoff and fiery demise, SpaceX and Musk have hailed the test as a success that enabled engineers to gather essential data for the next launch. On April 16, four days before the test, Musk lowered expectations, warning in a Twitter discussion (opens in new tab) that if any of the rocket’s engines went wrong “it’s like having a box of grenades, really big grenades.”

“This is really kind of the sort of first step in a very long journey that will require many, many flights,” Musk said. “For those that have followed the history of Falcon 9, and Falcon 1 actually, and our attempts at reusability, I think it might have been close to 20 attempts before we actually recovered a stage. And then it took many more flights before we had reusability that was meaningful, where we didn’t have to rebuild the whole rocket.”

Entertainment

Dolly Parton says ‘I ain’t dead yet’ after health fears triggered by singer’s sister

Published

3 hours ago

October 9, 2025

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Dolly Parton says 'I ain’t dead yet' after health fears triggered by singer's sister

Dolly Parton has declared she “ain’t dead yet” after her sister raised concerns about the singer’s health by asking people to pray for her.

“There are just a lot of rumours flying around. But I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was okay,” the 79-year-old singer said in a new two-minute video posted on social media.

“I’m not ready to die yet. I don’t think God is through with me. And I ain’t done working,” she added.

In the footage, captioned “I ain’t dead yet!”, the 9 to 5 singer is seen on a set speaking directly to the camera.

On Tuesday, a Facebook post shared by her sister Freida Parton escalated concerns around Parton’s health when she wrote that she had been “up all night praying for my sister, Dolly”.

Hours later, Freida Parton followed up with a clarification. “I want to clear something up. I didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious when asking for prayers for Dolly,” she wrote.

“She’s been a little under the weather, and I simply asked for prayers because I believe so strongly in the power of prayer.”

Last month, Parton postponed her first Las Vegas residency in 32 years, citing “health challenges”.

She was scheduled to perform six shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December. The dates have been moved to next September

Parton offered her own clarification about her health condition in Wednesday’s video.

“Everyone thinks that I am sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you? I’m working hard here! Anyway, I wanted to put everybody’s mind at ease, those of you who seem to be real concerned, which I appreciate,” she continued.

“And I appreciate your prayers because I’m a person of faith. I can always use the prayers for anything and everything.”

She also referenced her late husband of nearly 60 years Carl Dean who died earlier this year at the age of 82.

“I want you to know that I’m OK. I’ve got some problems as I’ve mentioned. Back when my husband Carl was very sick, that was for a long time, and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself. So I let a lot of things go that I should’ve been taking care of,” she said.

“So anyway, when I got around to it, the doctor said: ‘We need to take care of this. We need to take care of that.’ Nothing major, but I did have to cancel some things so I could be closer to home, closer to Vanderbilt, where I’m kind of having a few treatments here and there.”

And in true Parton fashion, she ended with a joke: “I wanted you to know that I’m not dying”.

Sports

Coach Sanders back at Colorado practice

Published

3 hours ago

October 9, 2025

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Associated Press

Oct 8, 2025, 04:45 PM ET

Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders was back at practice Wednesday, a day after undergoing surgery related to his blood clots.

Sanders had a procedure called an aspiration thrombectomy, which involves the left popliteal — located behind the knee — and tibial arteries. He appears on track to be on the sideline Saturday when the Buffaloes (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) host No. 22 Iowa State (5-1, 2-1).

His son Deion Sanders Jr. posted a short video of him on social media Wednesday as the Buffaloes coach stood at the 35-yard-line with a play sheet dangling from his waist. His team was practicing on the other side of the 50.

On Tuesday night, in a video posted by Well Off Media, which chronicles the Buffaloes, Sanders and his medical team talked about the procedure that would clean out his arteries to prevent more clots. Sanders said it was his 16th surgery over the past few years.

“Same position,” Sanders said as he got comfortable in the hospital bed. “Never doubting God. Never stressing. Never second-guessing.”

Sanders received a visit from longtime NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, who gave his friend a kiss on the head. Sanders also took calls from sons Shedeur and Shilo.

“If you give me $5 million just to have, I will make sure that you don’t have to get surgery anymore,” Shilo Sanders cracked on the phone call.

“I know where your care is coming from,” his dad playfully responded. “I don’t want nothing to do with your care.”

“If you give me five, I’ll make sure you’re alive,” Shilo said, drawing a laugh from his father and Jones.

Soon after, Deion Sanders was taken away to the operating room.

The 58-year-old was in pain during a 35-21 loss at TCU last Saturday, alternating between sitting and limping along the sideline with his leg throbbing. He didn’t wear a shoe on his left foot in the second half, and after the game he said he was “hurting like crazy.”

Sanders dealt with blood clot issues while at Jackson State in 2021, with doctors amputating two of the toes on his left foot. He also skipped a Pac-12 media day session in 2023 following a procedure to remove a blood clot from his right leg and another to straighten toes on his left foot.

Last spring, Sanders was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer. He revealed details of his treatment, which involved doctors removing his bladder and reconstructing a section of his intestine to function as a bladder.