SpaceX stumbles! US Air Force halts rocket test project over “seabird” distress

US Air Force Suspends SpaceX Hypersonic Cargo Transport Test Project From Pacific Ring Reefs, Citing Disturbance to Seabirds

On July 5, 2025, at 2:05 AM (Thailand time), Reuters reported that on July 4, the U.S. Air Force suspended a plan previously proposed in partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX to test transporting payload via supersonic rockets from a remote Reef Ring in the Pacific Ocean, according to a report this week in Stars and Stripes, an independent U.S. military publication.

The suspension comes after Reuters reported that biologists and experts said the project could endanger a large number of “seabirds” nesting in a wildlife sanctuary on Johnston Island, a non-state U.S. territory nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) southwest of Hawaii.

The US Air Force has said it will conduct an environmental impact assessment of the project, but the release of a draft assessment has been delayed after opposition to the plan from environmental groups.

The U.S. Air Force and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A U.S. Air Force spokesman told Stars and Stripes in a report published Thursday that the Air Force is exploring alternative locations for the project.

The project will use commercial rockets, such as those made by SpaceX, although the US Air Force has not yet announced a private partner.

The project will test a lander designed to deliver up to 100 tons of payload to anywhere on Earth in about 90 minutes. The project would be a major advancement in military logistics, allowing supplies to be moved to remote areas more quickly.

But the project would have too severe an impact on the island's 14 species of tropical birds, according to biologists and experts who have worked on the one-square-mile (2.6-square-kilometer) coral reef, part of the Remote Pacific Islands Marine Monument.

SpaceX's activities have had an impact on protected birds elsewhere in the past. Last year's Starship rocket launch from Boca Chica, Texas, involved an explosion that destroyed a plumer seabird's nest and eggs, landing the billionaire Musk's company in legal trouble and leading him to joke that he would go omelets for a week to compensate.

Reference: reuters.com

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