Mexican president threatens action against SpaceX at Boca Chica
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, yesterday indicated that her government was considering taking legal action against SpaceX because of the debris from its Superheavy rocket that was found washed up on its beaches after a test launch.
Mexico’s government was studying which international laws were being violated in order to file “the necessary lawsuits” because “there is indeed contamination”, Sheinbaum told her morning news conference on Wednesday.
…Mexican officials are carrying out a “comprehensive review” of the environmental impacts of the rocket launches for the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, Sheinbaum said.
Other than this one quote, the article at the link is largely junk, focusing on the test stand explosion last week of Starship, an event that has nothing to do with the material found on Mexico’s beaches. Moreover, that debris was apparently so harmless Mexicans were able to quickly gather it for souvenirs, with some immediately making money from it by selling it on social media.
In other words, this “investigation” and this “reporting” is nothing more than anti-Musk rhetoric because Musk has aligned himself with Trump.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, yesterday indicated that her government was considering taking legal action against SpaceX because of the debris from its Superheavy rocket that was found washed up on its beaches after a test launch.
Mexico’s government was studying which international laws were being violated in order to file “the necessary lawsuits” because “there is indeed contamination”, Sheinbaum told her morning news conference on Wednesday.
…Mexican officials are carrying out a “comprehensive review” of the environmental impacts of the rocket launches for the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, Sheinbaum said.
Other than this one quote, the article at the link is largely junk, focusing on the test stand explosion last week of Starship, an event that has nothing to do with the material found on Mexico’s beaches. Moreover, that debris was apparently so harmless Mexicans were able to quickly gather it for souvenirs, with some immediately making money from it by selling it on social media.
In other words, this “investigation” and this “reporting” is nothing more than anti-Musk rhetoric because Musk has aligned himself with Trump.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Claudia Sheinbaum is very unhappy with Trump and therefore Musk because we are taking actions her handlers don’t like. The U.S. is deporting illegal alien Mexicans back to Mexico, especially criminals from Mexico and cartel members. The U.S. has threatened to take direct action against the drug cartels which are some of the worst criminal organizations. Tariffs have been imposed against Mexico. Oh, Mexico lost their lawsuit against American gun manufacturers.
Since there is little else that Mexico can do, they want to harass a prominent American and his company. I think the most that Mexico might get out of it is the cost of cleaning up. But it seems Mexican citizens have already taken care of that.
Ready to jack that remittance tax up to 20% now.
I believe it would be very, very difficult to figure out what debris in particular was from a SpaceX vehicle, as opposed to the many tons of other garbage covering northern Mexican beaches. YouTube has videos of folks hunting Mexican beaches for re-entry tiles, and the sheer amount of garbage on those beaches is staggering!
As for Mexico, they are dumping raw sewage into the Gulf of Baja and the Pacific Ocean. I wouldn’t doubt that the Rio Grande has quite a bit of that, too. I know the “migrant” camps in Matamoros were dumping their sewage into the river, along with a lot of their garbage. Just crazy…
Richard M–
Excellent idea!
“Imperial Beach is now the center of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters: Every day, 50 million gallons of untreated sewage, industrial chemicals and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20250607124143/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/us/mexico-sewage-california-beaches.html
A cheap money grab from a broke country immediately struck me as a possible scenario.
Some of our well read savants here may recall the quip by the 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.”
Diaz was thinking of American invasion and economic exploitation, which was (at least, so the argument goes) all that Mexico had suffered up to that point. But poor 21st century Mexico has also absorbed American identitarian ideology — at treble-force strength. To take just one example, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies legally *requires* gender parity, stipulating 50% of candidates to be women and 50% to be men for positions filled through popular election and the same percentages for those appointed to their positions. You can just imagine what kind of legislators that has brought into the mix, and thus, what sort of legislation. Claudia Sheinbaum is a symptom, not a cause — and the real wonder is that she did not manifest as a symptom even sooner.
It is yet another example of how countries close within the American political and economic orbit often have taken on wokery to a far greater extent than America suffers under. And it’s the kind of ideological disorientation that makes possible actions like this one.
You know, they have a point.
End SS/SH
And launch nuclear pulse Orions salted with cobalt.
Say that three times and you will summon Gary Church.
(Don’t do it!)
I had bell book and candle all ready too.
wrt to Orion,
Starship is claimed to be able to carry 200 tons into orbit. You could build a nuclear pulsed Orion ark in LEO and go to the stars.
But Elon would have to avoid self-destruction first, which may be the bigger problem right now.
Littering appears to be a national pastime in Mexico from what I’ve observed when visiting the metro areas. Tijuana is not a unique example, almost any urban area near the beach likely has a raw sewage outlet near the shore – rivers magnify this exposure dramatically.
I thought the US and Mexico already resolved which parts of Tejas and Tamaulipas belonged to which state. Would Sheinbaum like to revisit the Guadeloupe Hidalgo? I’m game for it.
Hello David,
Well, in fairness — bear in mind that the Massey’s site is, quite literally, on the Mexican border. It’s southern end is on the banks of the Rio Grande, which is not exactly very wide at that point. By my rough Google Map calculation, the static fire mount is less than 700 feet from the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande.
What apparently happened is that some odd pieces of Starship 36 (and perhaps a few pieces of ground systems blasted free) ended up deposited on the opposing Mexican riverbank. Which is where the souvenir hunters have been busy. The international boundary officially runs right through the center of the river channel.
Legally, the Mexican government has some nominal basis for concern, because there is no question that Starship pieces ended up on their territory. Practically speaking, however, it seems to be as Bob says — negligible in quantity, and none of it toxic so far as we know. It is the sort of situation that would be resolved quickly and with minor fuss; but of course the Sheinbaum government is looking for PR points for its votaries to eat up.
In the United States and in most developed countries the national government exercises effective sovereignty over every square inch of its defined territory. We tend, therefore, to think of that state of affairs as normal pretty much everywhere. It isn’t.
In much of the world national governments tend to exercise effective sovereignty over only a subset – often not even a very large subset – of notional national territory with the national capitol being at the center of this region. Effective sovereignty fuzzily diminishes and may even, for practical purposes, vanish along many compass points before a nominal national border is encountered. Criminal cartels, endemic rebel groups, political rivals of the current head of state and rival tribes may exercise effective sovereignty outside of the capital-centric demesne. In Africa, the latter two categories of alternative sovereignty are pretty much equivalent.
Mexico, along with much of Latin America for that matter, has, sadly, always been such a place. The area in which the “national” government has effective sovereignty may now be even smaller than it was back when, say, Black Jack Pershing and George Patton were chasing Pancho Villa around northern Mexico just prior to WW1. The central government in Mexico City had no real sovereignty over its northern marches in those days and the passage of more than a century may well have seen the situation become even worse. Back in the day it was rebels against the central government who contested central sovereignty. These days it’s criminal cartels. On average, these latter have both a lot more money and better management than the rebel groups of yore. They’re also a lot better armed.
This is hardly a secret to any of Mexico’s past or present Presidentes but it’s something none off them have found the ability to change and that explains more than a little of the historically tetchy relations Mexico’s various administrations have had with El Norte. American Presidents, operating on the quite erroneous assumption that the Mexican central government in Mexico City can actually do anything consequential to address problems in its northern-tier states merely cause annoyance and embarrassment to Mexican Presidentes who – even when female as at present – don’t like to have to acknowledge the situation as it’s a severe black mark against their personal machismo.
Thus any opportunity to make a lot of noise about inconsequential matters of U.S. “violations of Mexican sovereignty” are eagerly seized upon and ridden for all they are worth in terms of domestic politics. So it goes. So it will likely always go in old Mexico.
One of my favorite Bond film quotes:
“Remember… you’re only President…for life.”
Dalton era.
Mexico is essentially a failed socialist nation.
The only difference resource wise between the USA and Mexico is that Mexico has less fresh water than the USA. Other than that they have had the same possibilities as America.
Politically they are fully socialist. Without an economy that could support what they promised the people.
There is so much wrong with Mexican society that it would have to be changed down to the core. They have been socialist longer then America has been a democracy. They went from King to socialist instead of Democracy.
The cartels are just the final extension of their society. Corruption is expected and in some cases encouraged. for years the cartels had a quiet agreement amongst themselves that they would never operate inside of the capital. But about 20 years ago that agreement went out the window and I fully suspect that the Mexican Presidents since then have been fully paid for by the cartels,
The American government is keeping this quiet for quite a few reasons, one of which is to keep good neighborly relations among the populous.
This little space problem could very well be an extension of the cartels losing money.
Or she could think this will gain her a few votes.
Either way in the end it means nothing to America.
I predict that inside the next 25 years people will be calling for the US to intervene in the Mexican border states at least, if not the whole nation.
Think of it this way. All of the Mexican legals and illegals will look back over the border and want to do something about their homeland. And eventually they will ask the US government for that help.
pzatchok-
Mexico; Look up the “PRI,” ‘Institutional Revolutionary Party.’
They dominated Mexican politics for most of the 20th century.
Mexico is Socialist…so is China—but boy, is there a difference.
Both had cheap labor—but Mexico isn’t on Elon’s heels.
Culture matters.
If you could bottle up Chinese willpower, and spike the Mexican’s drink—they’d be dangerous!
Jeff–
I’d quibble with that– China is run via state-capitalism and Maoism, more of a totalitarian collective oligarchy.
When you steal the marginal labor output of a billion slaves for 70 years, you can produce a lot of GDP.
Mexico– not the kind of socialism our friend Lee would recognize; they have a “welfare system” and old-age pensions, but those programs cover less than half the population (130 million total).
50% of Mexico’s wealth is held by less than 1% of the population. They manage indigenous discontent by exporting their excess people to the United States.
Mexico’s system also works against outside investment and works to stop it.
China on the other hand has been working for decades to bring in any outside investment they can.
But that has made China weak. Right now they are in an economic death spiral they have no possible way out of. Trumps tariffs tipped them into it and sped up the spiral. That is why they came to the economic table so fast. If Trump demands remittance and a Chinese correction for the theft of IP they could be sent back to the stone age inside a decade. And they have a lot farther to fall than Mexico. Its estimated they may no longer even have a billion population.
Mexico maybe socialist but they are not as corrupt as China. And they have their neighbor to the north to help them economically. We could even influence them socially. But they do need a total reset and re education.
They want what America has but just do not see a way to reach it. Not without help. Will America be willing to help when its needed? No matter how ugly it gets?
By the way Poncho Villa stole my families ranch. I would like it back.