The SpaceX 7 explosion and its environmental fallout in the Turks & Caicos.

By Alizee Zimmermann, Turks & Caicos Reef Fund

“Eric! Come quick, look up!” I shouted across our parking lot on a slightly muggy Thursday evening. I had the hose out and was rinsing off dive gear from the day’s field work. “I think something went wrong with the SpaceX launch!”

As we stood there, staring at the spiralling kaleidoscope of colours, time slowed down and our sense of perception felt heightened. Imaginations running wild as dayglow smoke streaked and spun across the evening sky. Minutes passed, then came the noise—thunderous, ground shaking “booms,” one after the other, over and over, for what felt like an eternity, literal echoing proof of the difference between the speed of sound and that of light. 

It didn’t take long for the messages to start pouring in. The world’s most powerful rocket had exploded over our little islands in the Atlantic Ocean! What started out as another routine test flight for SpaceX’s Starship has turned into an unprecedented experience for our region that demands attention and begs the questions:  What are the environmental implications of the fallout? Who is going to pay to clean it up? Is this likely to happen again? 

What happened?

On January 16 at 5:37 PM (TCI time), SpaceX’s Starship 33 launched from its facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The mission—a test flight intended to orbit Earth before falling safely into the Indian Ocean—started out as planned. However, eight and a half minutes into the flight the spacecraft, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Or, as the rest of us would say: It exploded.

SpaceX takes the “fail forward” approach that favours rapid testing with probable failures as a means of faster learning during research and development. The private company on the forefront of interplanetary space exploration was able to boast the first successful retrieval of the booster, caught by the “chopsticks” at the Mechazilla Tower at Starbase.

The failure was all but expected. Where the pieces landed, an afterthought in the race to space. To be honest, it probably would have been an afterthought for most of us had it not happened over an inhabited country. Had the explosion happened a couple of degrees to the east, over the open Atlantic Ocean as was originally reported, would we have heard about it? If we had, would we have cared? 

The fallout and immediate response

After the initial confusion and awe (the colours and trails truly were a sight to behold!) came the realization that what goes up, must come down, and down it was coming. Messages started pouring in of persons finding pieces around the Islands. On a tennis court, in driveways and along the road, even reports of a piece falling onto someone’s car (no injuries were reported). As night fell, I wondered about how the corals, fishes, and sea creatures perceived the event. The sonic impact was surely disruptive but what about the lights, the heat, the chunks of metal splashing down?

The next morning, calls started coming in and over the course of the next two days the extent the of debris washing up on the beaches was becoming apparent. We received dozens of reports and photos from across the Caicos Islands but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that any reports of pieces floating up onto the eastern beaches of Grand Turk came in and they were sparse.

As a community driven and locally run NGO, the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund (TCRF) is often one of the first to be alerted about environmental impacts by concerned citizens, especially when connected to coastlines and marine environment. We work closely with the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources (DECR) and can mobilize funding and volunteers in rapid response situations such as these.

However, this was a completely different scenario. None of us had ever dealt with rocket ships exploding before and we were very clearly advised not to touch the debris due to potential environmental and public health concerns. The response to and management of this event fell under the National Security Secretariat of the TCI Government. The public was also reminded that “space debris remains the property of the spacecraft owner. The SpaceX incident is an active investigation led by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in liaison with the UK and TCI.” 

Due to the unknown public health risks, TCRF could not, at this point, actively encourage volunteers to conduct coastal and roadside cleanups. As the days progressed and multiple “waves” of debris floated in with each incoming tide, frustration grew at the silence. Several news articles were written about the event, from CNN to the Wall Street Journal; people wanted to know what had happened and what was being done about it. The public messaging remained the same: Report sightings, do not touch. Elon wants his puzzle pieces back.

Since we couldn’t directly work on clean up, we started collating information on where debris was being found and adding it to a shared database with the DECR. Within a week of the explosion, debris had been reported in various intensities on every beach in Providenciales and on each of the Caicos Islands from South Caicos to West. 

Environmental implications

Where there are information gaps, imagination reigns. Asbestos, styrofoam on steroids, radioactive are just a few of the words flying around (pun intended) to describe what the temperature shield material was made of. One thing was certain though, whatever this material is, it was being found everywhere. Pieces as small as a fingernail and as big as a car. 

To this day, little information has been shared by officials. The last public advisory notification that I’m aware of was posted on January 28, 2025 and stated: 

“A Turks & Caicos Islands Government (TCIG) disaster management team, alongside UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), met with representatives from SpaceX on Saturday 25 January 2025 to develop a recovery plan for debris that landed through TCI following the SpaceX incident.

TCIG representatives included:

•  Department of Disaster Management & Emergencies

•  Department of Environment & Coastal Resources

•  Department of Maritime Shipping

•  Environmental Health Department

•  National Security Secretariat 

Following finalisation of the recovery plan in consultation with UK specialist leads, the public will be made aware of the arrangements and necessary protocols.”

To my knowledge, there’s been no further updates to the public and TC Reef has not been given any updates regarding the cleanup even though our offer to assist through coordinated volunteers remains.

Approximately four weeks have passed since the explosion at the time of writing this article. In the third week post-explosion, I was contacted by a young man whose email sign off was “SpaceX Starship Range and Recovery.” An engineer and sympathetic to our concerns, we had a good conversation about the environmental implications of space travel and debris in this brave new world. 

Since it’s the part that floats, the most prevalent debris found by far has been the Styrofoam-esque material used for the rocket’s thermal insulation. Here’s what I’ve come to understand about the temperature/heat shield material. The tiles are composed of baked high-grade silica (sand), and it is not expected that any chemical or biodegradation would occur. Of course, mechanical degradation from wave and surf energy have caused the pieces to start disintegrating but due to the inert nature of silica, “impacts on air or water chemistry are not expected.” We have asked for a citeable paper/report on this.

Furthermore, the SpaceX representative seemed relatively confident that due to the tiles not emitting any attractive features (e.g. odours, lights, sounds, reflective surfaces) the impact to marine and seabird life due to ingestion was expected to be “negligible.” We’ve retained a healthy level of scepticism here as we’ve seen creatures eat just about anything. This also begs the question, what is considered “negligible” in a world fraught with environmental destruction? For example, the “acceptable” or “negligible’ number of corals that could be destroyed during a construction project has changed as we face increasing coral cover decline. Business as usual is no longer an option.

A plea for proactive action

TC Reef started working with the DECR immediately after the incident to put together a database of where debris was being found. As mentioned previously, this matter resides with the National Security Secretariat of the TCI Government. We are grateful for the coordinated response so far, but we need to be proactive moving forward and we urge our government not to sweep this under the rug, so to speak.  This incident is a sign of what could become a more regular issue as commercial space travel and satellite deployments increase in the coming years.

What is needed now is a comprehensive and coordinated approach, not just for the cleanup, but for environmental monitoring and assessment. Immediate action should include:

1.  A Full Environmental Impact Assessment: A funded full assessment of the spread and impact of debris will help us understand the long-term risks to marine life and coastal ecosystems. SpaceX and other agencies involved in commercial space missions must invest in understanding the environmental consequences of their launches, particularly in regions as ecologically sensitive as the Caribbean.

2. Dedicated Cleanup Task Force: The current cleanup efforts, though vital, require robust coordination to remove all debris in a safe, timely manner. Funding should be provided to send cleanup crew, including divers, out to remote areas where larger debris may have struck sensitive habitats. 

3. Continued Collaboration with International Agencies: TC Reef has been working with the TCI Government  who in turn are working with agencies like the UK Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and SpaceX to better understand the spread and impact of the explosion. Moving forward, these partnerships should continue to focus on long-term environmental monitoring and resource allocation for future response teams.

4. Public Awareness: One of the most criticized aspects of this event was the lack of information being shared with the public about the nature of the debris and its potential impact on public health. A broader campaign on littering and the ecological impact of our man-made trash should be funded as a nation-wide educational program. The sad truth is, there’s more other trash than space debris on  many of our shorelines. 

Conclusion

The explosion of the SpaceX Starship on January 16 is a tragic but valuable learning opportunity for both the space industry and environmental advocates. While this incident has highlighted the risks posed by space debris, it is also an opportunity for us to establish standards and practices that can rapidly and adequately address the fallout as space exploration accelerates. It also highlights the need for better environmental management of our locally produced trash as well. 

The Turks & Caicos, with its stunning coral reefs and rich marine biodiversity, has found itself on the front lines of this emerging environmental issue. We urge not only local governments but also international organizations and space agencies like SpaceX to prioritize environmental impact assessments, funding for cleanup operations, and preventive measures moving forward. Additionally, if these tests are to continue, and let’s be honest, more failures are likely, should SpaceX be mitigating its impact through environmental funding for the island nations its rockets fly over?

As space exploration continues to evolve, it’s crucial that we ensure our planet’s ecosystems are not left behind in the race to reach the stars. The Turks & Caicos Reef Fund stands committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure that this incident, or at least the response to it, does not become a pattern, but rather a turning point in how we handle the intersection of space exploration and environmental stewardship.

The Turks & Caicos Reef Fund (www.tcreef.org) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) registered NGO working on preserving and protecting the marine environment of the TCI through education, research, advocacy. and inclusive initiatives. If you’re interested in learning more or getting involved, please email al****@tc****.org.

Editor’s note:  On March 6, 2025, the SpaceX 8 Starship exploded, with the event again visible over the Turks & Caicos. At press time, the debris field was not known.