SpaceX wants to conduct a land swap in Texas to “expand its operating footprint around its launch facilities” for its massive new Starship rocket, the state said.
SpaceX plans to donate 477 acres (193 hectares) to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Boca Chica on the South Texas coast, according to state documentation. The city of Boca Chica is close to where the company conducts Starship launches and tests. In return, the department would grant SpaceX 43 acres (17.4 hectares) of Boca Chica State Park, closer to the Starship area.
A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday (Jan. 25) to discuss the issue. You can submit your comments online through local Texas business hours on Wednesday (Jan. 24).
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The land dispute once again puts a spotlight on SpaceX’s ongoing activities in the environmentally sensitive area surrounding its South Texas facilities as the company works on lucrative contracts related to Starship. SpaceX’s Starship system has been tasked by NASA to take astronauts to the moon’s surface during the Artemis 3 mission in 2026, in the first of what could be a series of moon landing opportunities for SpaceX.
But to get approval for lunar excursions, SpaceX must certify Starship with numerous launches; Earlier this month, NASA postponed the Artemis landing schedule by at least a year to resolve numerous issues. A crewed round-the-moon mission known as Artemis 2 has suffered technical problems, while SpaceX’s spacecraft and space suits, built by Axiom Space, are unlikely to be ready in time for the previous Artemis 3 landing timeline of 2025, NASA officials said.
Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, has not yet reached space. But two previous launch attempts – and years of testing to boot – have sparked controversy among local residents.
The agenda for Thursday’s public meeting notes that part of the state’s rationale for receiving the acreage near Laguna Atascosa, however, is that the swap would give Texans the opportunity for recreational activities such as “hiking, camping, water recreation and wildlife viewing”. .” The newly protected land would also meet ecological needs by allowing “better conservation of sensitive habitats for wintering and migratory birds.”
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SpaceX has owned land in the state of Texas since 2003, initially focusing on a test site west of Waco, the San Antonio Express-News said in a July 2013 report. Company founder and CEO Elon Musk spoke to lawmakers at the time of Texas about its plans to transform the Boca Chica area, described by the newspaper as “a strip of salt flats” into an area now used for spacecraft launches and other tests.
Boca Chica area acquisitions have been going on since 2014, according to a report in the July Austin American-Statesman. The purchases were made through SpaceX subsidiary Dogleg Park LLC, the Statesman report said, citing public data that was in turn cited by the Brownsville Herald.
Some of these purchases have been made directly to local homeowners, with a 2019 NBC report suggesting that residents have received offers from SpaceX of up to three times the value of their properties (according to appraisals the company commissioned).
SpaceX’s activities on lands it does not own have also stirred controversy. For example, a tract of land it leased near Brownsville was subject to a complex legal dispute over oil and gas rights and the proper use of the land, according to a 2021 report from MySanAntonio.com.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s launches near Boca Chica beach (along with resulting closures to launch operations) have repeatedly raised concerns among environmental groups, as well as Native American tribes of the region who say they have used the land for generations.
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The first space launch attempt of SpaceX’s Starship, on April 20, 2023, generated flying chunks of concrete as the rocket’s first stage, powered by 33 Raptor engines, erupted a large crater beneath its path. After Starship’s second launch, on November 18 this year, Musk said on X (formerly Twitter, which he also owns) that there was no damage to the pad after SpaceX installed a gargoyle steel plate under the pad.
That said, there is still a legal dispute over the Starship’s first spaceflight attempt. A lawsuit filed against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2023 by a coalition of environmental groups and Native American tribes alleged that the agency failed to fully consider the environmental damage that would be caused by SpaceX’s first space launch attempt. That case is still ongoing. According to a report by Express-News, new legal claims from the same coalition were filed in December 2023 after the second launch.
The FAA approves each spacecraft launch individually after consultation with other government departments and agencies, including environmental authorities. Under its mandate, the agency also said it will oversee a SpaceX-led “accident investigation” to “ensure SpaceX complies with its FAA-approved accident investigation plan and other regulatory requirements.” wrote via X on November 18, after the second launch attempt. At the time, there were no reports of injuries or damage to public property as a result of the flight, the FAA added another message.