BURN ZONE

Elon Musk’s Exploding Rocket Started a Fire on State Park Land in Texas

A “plume cloud of pulverized concrete” hurled debris more than six miles away from the launchpad.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk had previously said that just getting his Starship—the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built—in the air without destroying the launchpad would be “a win.” Well, the rocket did make it off the ground on its April 20 launch, right before dropping flaming debris and starting a 3.5-acre fire at Boca Chica State Park in southern Texas. In an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that the launch did severely damage the launchpad and sent concrete, steel and other rubble thousands of feet in the air. Additionally, a “plume cloud of pulverized concrete” hurled debris more than six miles away from the launchpad. The agency found no evidence of dead wildlife, but the fire on Boca Chica’s land south of the launch had to be extinguished.