The Messy Reality of Elon Musk’s Space City
SpaceX’s explosive launch covered a Texas town in grime. It’s the latest dustup in the company’s unneighborly saga.
A few things happened when SpaceX’s uncrewed experimental rocket blasted off and then exploded mid-flight last week. The engineers who’d designed it let out a deep sigh, maybe a couple of groans. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates rocket launches, began a standard investigation into what happened. Elon Musk congratulated his staff on a good start. And in a small nearby city, ashlike debris rained down from the sky, covering everything in a layer of grime.
The giant Starship rocket lifted off with so much force that it not only blew a massive hole in Port Isabel, located about six miles northwest of the company’s launch facility in Texas. The launch also shook houses and shattered at least one window,
