Leaving a fiery arc in its wake, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lofts 53 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 27, 2022. Credit: SpaceX/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
By Leah Yananton,
Published by Santa Barbara Independent, 30 September 2025
California’s Coastline Is a Public Trust, Not Elon Musk’s Private Launchpad
Governor Newsom’s celebratory speech for California’s 175th birthday earlier this month on social media, highlights rockets blasting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, which is currently where the military is seeking to build a new launch pad for Elon Musk’s private company SpaceX. The plan is to increase rocket launches from 30 a year to eventually 150 a year, which will profit Musk but will further degrade our lives and livable habitats.
In 2024, SpaceX launched 51 rockets from Vandenberg. Residents from Santa Barbara to North Angeles County are feeling the shock of the sonic booms and describe feeling symptoms of traumatic stresses to their nervous systems, brains and hearts, while also witnessing new cracks in their homes. If humans in Santa Barbara are feeling these shocks indoors in a 100-mile radius from Vandenberg, imagine how it negatively affects pets and defenseless wildlife.
Last October, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) denied the proposed increase of SpaceX rocket launches from 36 to 50, and Musk immediately sued them for political bias and free speech. He also ignored the CCC’s request to provide more information on environmental impacts on the Pacific coast, yet Governor Newsom publicly sided with Musk when he said, “I’m with Elon.”
Elon Musk’s personal fortune and SpaceX’s expansion are built largely on taxpayer-funded NASA and Department of Defense contracts. Californians have already invested in his company; now he seeks to evade oversight while putting our environment, our health, and our coastline at risk. This is an example of a billionaire’s corporation leveraging federal authority to pursue projects that harm the public. Our coastline is a shared public trust, not Elon Musk’s private launchpad.
Rocket fuels like RP-1 kerosene, and perchlorates are highly toxic, contaminate air, soil, and water — and are especially dangerous for children and pregnant women. Methane fuel is also a dangerous greenhouse gas.
SpaceX’s endangerment of wildlife goes beyond California. Musk’s launches from Starbase, Texas, are documented to have caused mass death for 900 endangered sea turtles in the impact zone in Mexico. The test launches and accidental explosions compacted the sand such that the turtle eggs could not hatch; they were buried alive.
According to a veterinarian from Tamaulipas, Mexico, Dr. Jesús Elías Ibarra Rodríguez: “It’s like launching bombs on their habitat. You have the sound and vibration of the explosions, and you have tons of millions of little pieces of plastic that are bait for them. And we worry about sea life in general consuming all that.”
The SpaceX launches reflect a common theme among Musk’s businesses: abuse of our planet and its inhabitants. In Memphis, an enormous Grok data center known as Colossus has poisoned a Black community with methane emissions because of its colossal need for energy from temporary gas turbines.
Musk intends to achieve a rocket to Mars by 2055: This is around the time that predicted global warming tipping points would head toward the worse-case-scenario if we continue business-as-usual. It seems if Musk has his way, business-as-usual will lead us to losing our coasts while SpaceX takes life from Earth to Mars.
He, and Newsom, should not forget that Earth is life. Whales, birds, turtles, seals, and wildlife all need our protection. The sky and the water is our heritage to maintain for future generations.
Here in California, if the Air Force continues to green-light SpaceX launching 100 or more rockets a year plus re-entries, we will be experiencing sonic booms every two to three days. The effects will feel akin to living in constant war.
In response to the Coastal Commission’s decision last October to deny the Air Force and SpaceX project until they provide more data on environmental impacts, Governor Newsom also said, “I didn’t like that.”
Governor Newsom: Californians don’t like that the Air Force is ignoring the California Coastal Commission’s ruling and allowing SpaceX, a private corporation, to launch a goal of 40,000 Starlink satellites into our sky. They will not only desecrate the planet but threaten the Earth with space junk under the guise of “National Security.” In actuality, this is for private profit to SpaceX, too.
The Kessler Effect is when one piece of space junk crashes into a spacecraft and causes a domino-effect of exploding satellites, enclosing the Earth in the fine dust of aluminum, metals, and chemicals that would damage the planet permanently. Object to this recklessness. Indeed, we do not consent.
Elon Musk does not care about the harm he is causing.
Governor Newsom: Are you sure you want to be with Elon?
Imagine if billionaires gave back to the Earth and if defense contractors paid their engineers to build a better future for our children in an economy invested in peace and human well-being, instead of making more sophisticated weapons and militarizing space, which also breaks international treaties.
Let the Earth breathe; rocket launches and sonic booms are harmful to life and birth cycles. Let the Earth renew, and follow indigenous stewardship instead of draining resources for corporate profits, at the expense of life on Earth.
Write or call the governor to share your thoughts:
Governor Gavin Newsom; 1021 O Street, Suite 9000;
Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone (916) 445-2841. Email via the official form on the governor’s website: https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/.
See: Original Article
