Mexico City — A small Texas town just across the border from Mexico is the testing ground for Starship, the hulking spacecraft that Elon Musk hopes will one day ferry people to Mars.
In recent months, multiple test launches have ended in explosions, causing debris to rain down on both countries and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mexican scientists say the wreckage is killing wildlife, including dolphins, sea turtles and fish.
Amid growing pressure from her constituents, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this week that her government is investigating the “security and environmental” effects of Musk’s rockets and has found that “there is indeed contamination,” a charge Musk’s company denies.
Sheinbaum said her government is trying to determine whether SpaceX has violated international laws and said Mexico will file “necessary lawsuits.”
Her statements come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Mexico on security, migration and the economy. President Trump’s tariffs on Mexican imports and threats of U.S. drone strikes on cartel targets have sparked a surge of nationalism here.
Musk, a billionaire who is also the CEO of Tesla and the owner of X, is closely allied with the U.S. administration, having donated more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect Trump. For several months this year he was the informal head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
SpaceX said in a post on X that independent tests performed on the material used in Starships confirm that it “does not present any chemical, biological or toxicological risks.”
The company said it attempts to recover all debris from exploded devices.
U.S. groups have also blamed SpaceX rockets for environmental degradation. The company’s Starbase launch facility in South Texas abuts the Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge, an expanse of tidal flats, mangroves and sand dunes that is home to rare and endangered species including ocelots, sea turtles and northern aplomado falcons.
A coalition including the Sierra Club and a local Native American tribe sued the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the agencies approved test launches without conducting thorough environmental reviews. They say failed rocket launches have spread concrete and metal debris across thousands of feet of surrounding lands — and once set off a fire that burned several acres of protected dunes.
In Mexico, environmentalists began raising alarms earlier this year after space debris was discovered in the border city of Matamoros, in the Río Bravo — as Mexico calls the Rio Grande — and in the Gulf of Mexico.
A local nonprofit in the state of Tamaulipas issued a report documenting animal deaths in a region known as a nesting ground for manatees, sharks, whales and other animals. It warned particularly about risks to sea turtles who ingest particles of space debris.
The group said it had collected more than a ton of debris scattered along an area more than 25 miles long.
The governor of Tamaulipas said authorities were also looking into the issue. Gov. Américo Villarreal Anaya said his government will verify whether “the internationally required distances are being respected in order to have these types of facilities so that there is no risk to urban centers.”
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