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The Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday there were no environmental demonstrators in SpaceX’s plans to launch a giant new rocket from South Texas into orbit.

An environmental assessment by the agency It concluded that SpaceX’s orbital launch plans would not have a “significant impact” on the region stretching along the Gulf Coast near Brownsville, Texas. But the FAA wants the company to undertake more than 75 actions to minimize impact on surrounding areas as it embarks on Starship flights, a vehicle central to NASA’s plans to return to the moon and to Elon Musk’s vision. , the founder and CEO of the company, to colonize Mars.

Actions that Mr. Musk’s company must take include advance notice of launches, monitoring vegetation and wildlife by a biologist, coordinating with state and federal agencies to remove launch debris from sensitive habitats, and adjusting lighting to reduce the impact on wildlife and a nearby beach. .

Mitigation measures required by the FAA also restrict a highway that passes through the SpaceX site during launch so people can visit the nearby beach, park, and wildlife sanctuary. The agency said the highway cannot be closed for more than 18 holidays and five weekends a year.

The decision means there is no need for a more comprehensive environmental impact statement, which would likely add years to the project. This decision disappointed some members of the community.

“It’s ridiculous to say they didn’t have any significant impact,” said Jim Chapman, a board member of Save RGV, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group that aims to protect the Rio Grande Valley. “The effects are huge. We still feel that way. The FAA should have accepted that.”

Mr Chapman said he hoped his group could file a lawsuit to force more comprehensive environmental scrutiny. And SpaceX still needs a license from the FAA for launches.

SpaceX’s site is in a small village called Boca Chica, which the company calls Starbase.

There, SpaceX has been working for several years on Starship, a stainless steel giant that will be the most powerful rocket ever. It will be taller than the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal, at nearly 400 feet high, along with a booster stage.

Also, unlike any previous orbital rocket, it will be completely reusable. Mr Musk said this has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of sending payloads into orbit – less than $10 million to get 100 tons into space.

The Boca Chica site presents several factors that make it a suitable place to launch rockets into orbit. Except for the bottom of the Florida peninsula, it is south enough to be taken in the United States. For many missions, a launch pad closer to the equator helps orbital travel by adding the Earth’s rotational speed to the rocket’s speed.

The launch path passes over water away from populated areas, minimizing the risk to people on the ground.

However, other creatures also live in the surrounding wetlands. ocelots and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, both are in danger. Passing by the SpaceX site, State Highway 4 also passes Boca Chica Beach, Texas State Parks, and the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalists are concerned that a steady cadence of thunderous blasts and rocket exhaust and Starship launches, as well as potential explosive mishaps, will disrupt the ecosystem.

SpaceX’s plans for Boca Chica to impact the environment include: building a solar farm; build parking lots; construction of processing facilities to be carried by the cargo Starship; and making more test flights, increasing the likelihood of additional test blasts that could send debris and powerful shock waves for miles.

The site also created an economic controversy. Many officials and residents welcome the influx of money and prestige SpaceX brings it to the Brownsville area, where about a third of people live below the poverty line. But others worry that gentrification will strain longtime residents.

In 2014, the FAA granted SpaceX environmental clearance to test and launch the smaller Falcon 9. Over the past few years, Falcon 9 has become the most frequently launched rocket on the planet. But SpaceX never launched it from Boca Chica, rather than using its other sites in California and Florida.

And Starship is much larger and has greater impacts on surrounding areas than Falcon 9, a spacecraft stacked on top of a giant booster called Super Heavy.

Therefore, the FAA needed a new environmental assessment before SpaceX attempted to launch a Starship into orbit. During its first orbital test flight, the Super Heavy booster would attempt a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship stage would attempt to land in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii after flying into orbit.

In September, the agency released a draft document suggesting that there are no major obstacles that would require SpaceX to create a full-fledged environmental impact statement. It planned to release a final version at the end of December, but retracted the date several times, citing the need to take into account the 18,000 comments on the preliminary document.

In an update on the Starship program in February, Mr. Musk said he hoped the FAA would soon give SpaceX the green light to continue. “We got the rough sign that there might be a confirmation in March,” said Mr Musk.

That didn’t happen, but at the time Mr Musk said an attempt to launch an orbit “a few months” could take place after it’s been confirmed. The company has yet to announce an updated launch schedule based on Monday’s ruling.

SpaceX also plans to launch Starships from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In addition to eventual trips to Mars, Starship will be used by NASA to transport astronauts from orbit around the moon to its surface. The company won a $2.9 billion contract for the task. surpassing the other two bidders: Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and defense contractor Dynetics. this A moon landing on paper is planned for 2025but it is expected to be delayed. In addition to working on Starship, the astronauts’ return to the moon, Space Launch SystemAnother large rocket in development by NASA that is also behind schedule.