THRUST ISSUES

Elon Musk’s Starship Launch Blasts Texas City With Dust and Debris

Residents described being terrified as houses shook before the mucky cloud descended.

A city in Texas was covered in a grimy cloud of dark brown dust blown up by the launch of SpaceX’s Starship on Thursday. Elon Musk’s spacecraft—which exploded shortly after liftoff from Boca Chica—was the most powerful rocket ever assembled and left its mark on the city of Port Isabel, about six miles from the launch site, according to The New York Times. One resident described her brick house shaking during the “truly terrifying” launch, while another likened the rumbling to a “mini earthquake” that shattered a window at his gym. Valerie Bates, a Port Isabel spokeswoman, told the Times that the city “ended up with a covering of a rather thick, granular, sand grain that just landed on everything,” which officials blamed on dust falling from the launch. Bates said there was no “immediate concern” for residents’ health. Closer to the launch, a car was filmed being smashed up by large pieces of debris from the blast.