SpaceX has been smacked by a one-two punch of lawsuits filed by hundreds of Texas residents accusing the company of damaging their homes from its frequent rocket tests.
The suits, both led by the same attorneys, were filed in Cameron and McLennan counties, where SpaceX’s Starbase and McGregor facilities are located. They accuse SpaceX of negligence, the San Antonio Express-News reports, arguing that the company failed to assess the risks posed by launches of its Starship rocket.
While specific homeowner’s complaints’ aren’t mentioned — likely dampening the suit’s prospects — the attorneys cite reports that the noise and vibrations from the massive spacecraft damaged their roofs and violently shattered windows and glass doors. The homes are “literally cracking under the pressure, suffering from fractured foundations, differential settlement and compromised structural integrity,” one of the lawsuits claim.
“Plaintiffs are innocent bystanders whose homes in the areas surrounding SpaceX’s Starbase launch site are being repeatedly damaged by noise, vibrations, and sonic booms from SpaceX’s Starship operations,” the attorneys wrote.
Since its inaugural flight in April 2023, Starship has launched eleven times, exploding or breaking apart mid-flight in several of them. Its inaugural flight set the destructive tone: not only did the entire rocket assembly blow up just minutes into the flight, but the company was roundly criticized by experts for its launchpad, which didn’t use industry standard measures to mitigate the powerful acoustic forces generated by the rocket’s awesome array of 33 Raptor engines. With nothing to soften the 16 million pounds of thrust blasted on its face, the concrete pad was obliterated.
Reports of the launches shaking buildings, terrifying residents, and even shattering windows have dogged SpaceX ever since. Starship, according to the suit, produces “unprecedented power and acoustic energy,” generating twice as much thrust as other behemoths like NASA’s historic Saturn V rocket and new Space Launch System. “Yet, SpaceX’s Starship operations rely on decades‐old acoustic prediction model theories,” the suit claims, citing official statements from the company in which it acknowledges it lacks the data to accurately model Starship blasts and acoustic impacts.
“This acoustic and seismic assault is not an occasional inconvenience. It is a relentless, daily bombardment,” the lawsuit said. “Rather than brief ignitions, these static fires often involve agonizingly long duration burns — sometimes lasting nearly six uninterrupted minutes — subjecting surrounding properties to prolonged periods of severe acoustic and seismic resonance.”
The lawsuits come at an awkward moment for SpaceX, which is planning to go public in what is expected to be a historic multitrillion dollar IPO. It’s also under a tight deadline perfect its Starship, which has been selected to bring astronauts down to the lunar surface in NASA’s Artemis IV mission, currently slated for no earlier than 2028.
More on SpaceX: Explosion Reported on Site as SpaceX Prepares Starship for Another Launch