Elon Musk's expansion of his SpaceX site in Texas could be blocked as its rocket launches have led to a decline in the numbers of an endangered bird species, the piping plover.
SpaceX is planning to expand its Starbase rocket site at Boca Chica, Texas by building a second launch and landing pad where the company's Starship rocket will launch.
But in its submission to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said SpaceX's growth in the Boca Chica area has led to a negative impact on shorebird species.
"It is not clear what happened to the ‘missing’ plovers, but if SpaceX activities have resulted in the loss of over half the Boca Chica population then the entire critical habitat is being impacted,” the FWS opined, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
The opinion was submitted by FWS to the FAA as part of its environmental review of SpaceX’s plans at Boca Chica.
The FWS said the reasons behind the "missing birds" could include deaths from rocket tests and explosions, habitat loss due to rocket debris recovery, injury to internal organs from testing, and displacement caused by loud noises and operations.
Specifically, SpaceX's predicted impacts on mating, migration, health, and habitat of piping plovers, red knots, jaguarundi, and ocelots are of concern, said the document, according to CNBC.
SpaceX's plans for the Boca Chica rocket launch site have been under review by the FAA since July 2020 and have been pushed back multiple times, but the FAA said it wants to complete the assessment by May 31.
Once the FAA completes its assessment and gives SpaceX the go-ahead, the company will be able to launch its Starship rocket into orbit.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) chief executive Musk said in February that his company could shift its Starship Super Heavy launch activity to Florida and turn its Boca Chica spaceport into an R&D center if regulatory hurdles in Texas proved impossible to overcome.