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.
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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.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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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.