Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has threatened to sue Elon Musk’s SpaceX over falling particles from a rocket launch throughout the border in the USA.
SpaceX stated its efforts to get better particles from Mexico had been hindered by “trespassers”.
Right here is extra about what is occurring between Mexico and SpaceX.
What occurred?
A SpaceX “Starship” rocket, a part of Musk’s challenge to ship people to house, exploded in a large fireball throughout a routine launch take a look at in Texas on June 19.
Starship rockets are 120 metres (400ft) tall and made primarily from chrome steel.
The rocket, known as the Starship 36, went via “catastrophic failure and exploded” on the Starbase launch facility at 04:00 GMT, in accordance with native Cameron County authorities.
The ability is positioned at Starbase, previously known as Boca Chica Village, in Cameron County, Texas, near the US-Mexico border.
What does Mexico say about contamination?
On Wednesday this week, Sheinbaum advised her morning information convention that “there’s certainly contamination” which has been detected in Mexico within the aftermath of the SpaceX explosion.
She stated Mexican officers are conducting a overview of the environmental impact induced to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, just a little greater than 300km (190 miles) from Starbase.
Tamaulipas governor, Americo Villarreal Anaya, stated authorities had been analyzing “the internationally required distances are being revered as a way to have these kind of amenities, in order that there isn’t any threat to city centres”, in accordance with a report in The New York Occasions.
“We’re reviewing all the things associated to the launching of rockets which might be very near our border,” stated Sheinbaum.
She added that Mexico is presently making an attempt to find out whether or not worldwide legal guidelines had been violated so it could possibly file “the mandatory lawsuits”.
What does SpaceX say?
In an X submit on Thursday, SpaceX claimed its makes an attempt to get better the fallen particles from Mexican territory had been hindered.
“Regardless of SpaceX’s makes an attempt to get better the anomaly associated particles, which is and stays the tangible property of SpaceX, these makes an attempt have been hindered by unauthorised events trespassing on non-public property,” the X account wrote. It didn’t make clear who these events had been or the place they had been “trespassing”.
SpaceX additionally stated there have been “no hazards to the encompassing space” from the rocket particles. “Earlier unbiased assessments performed on supplies inside Starship, together with toxicity analyses, affirm they pose no chemical, organic, or toxicological dangers.
“We’ve requested native and federal help from the federal government of Mexico within the restoration,” it added.
As beforehand said, there are not any hazards to the encompassing space. Earlier unbiased assessments performed on supplies inside Starship, together with toxicity analyses, affirm they pose no chemical, organic, or toxicological dangers.
And as is the case earlier than any take a look at, a security… https://t.co/lJHGInE5vj
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 26, 2025
The place else have SpaceX rockets exploded?
In Could, the Federal Aviation Administration within the US granted SpaceX permission to extend the variety of Starships it launches every year from 5 to 25.
Later that month, a Starship prototype exploded over the Indian Ocean.
Earlier than that, two Starships broke into items after launching from Texas throughout take a look at flights in January and March. In January, airways had been pressured to divert flights to keep away from falling particles.
Does house particles pose a hazard to the Earth?
In January this yr, a red-hot 500kg (1,100lb) metallic object fell onto a village in Kenya’s Makueni county, 115km (70 miles) southeast of Nairobi. The Kenyan house company stated the particles was a fraction of an area object.
On Monday, March 3, the Australian Area Company launched an advisory {that a} Russian rocket making re-entry into the Earth’s ambiance was anticipated to fall into worldwide waters off the southeast coast of Tasmania, inflicting a “sonic increase”. Nonetheless, the next day, the company stated it had “monitored an area particles re-entry over the southeast coast of Tasmania” however was “unaware of any stories or sightings of the particles”.
The chance of house particles posing a hazard to individuals, plane or the Earth, generally, may be very low. Nonetheless, current research present that the quantity of house particles falling to the bottom is on the rise.
A research by researchers on the College of British Columbia in Canada, printed in Scientific Reports in January 2025, discovered that uncontrolled re-entries of rocket our bodies or house particles into the Earth are on the rise and should pose an elevated threat of collision to plane.
One other research, known as The Area Atmosphere Report, launched by the European Area Company (ESA) in March this yr, discovered that not less than three “intact”, human-made objects fall again onto the Earth every single day. That is moreover the a number of fragments of house particles that fall onto the Earth.
NASA has warned that there are thousands and thousands of items of house particles low within the Earth’s orbit, however there are not any worldwide house legal guidelines about cleansing up this particles.
Presently, people on the bottom should not at a excessive threat of being hit and injured by house particles re-entering the Earth. The US nonprofit house company, Aerospace, estimates this threat to be lower than a one-in-one-trillion likelihood.