About ten minutes after the seventh iteration of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship system launched last week, it exploded and left debris scattered along the beaches of Turks and Caicos. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries or damage sustained by nearby buildings. However, now that it’s been close to a week since the destruction, it appears that Musk hasn’t made any moves to create a cleanup plan. Several people have reported their cleanup findings, amassing a questionably large amount of pollutants, plastics, and general debris from the crash. One person even photographed their findings, which took up a large backyard patio table.
Shortly after the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed that they created a Debris Response Area so that planes and other vehicles that could fly overhead would be rerouted. However, when asked what areas were considered ‘hazardous,’ the FAA explained that the “investigation is ongoing” despite only lasting one hour. An official statement about what was regarded as a hazardous area has yet to be made, almost a week after the explosion. What makes this interesting is a statement made by SpaceX just after the crash concerning where debris was meant to land,
“surviving pieces of debris would have fallen into the designated hazard area.”
This statement was the amended version of what was initially stated, which described debris as falling into the Atlantic Ocean instead. It seems pretty clear why the phrasing was changed, especially if the crash pieces were expected never to wash up anywhere. Now that residents are finding them, it almost feels like they are expected to do the cleanup, as no solution seems to be on the horizon.
Something else I find interesting about the situation is that the crash happened before the Trump Administration began on January 20, 2025. At that time, President Trump appointed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as the Department of Government Efficiency Administrator. With this new role on his shoulders, will that affect whether a cleanup crew will assist the Turks in Caicos Islands in retrieving spaceship debris before launching the next test? Hopefully, a more concrete response will be unveiled before more residents uncover even more bits of debris on their beaches.
