Efforts To Evacuate The Starship Debris Are Hampered, SpaceX Asks The Mexican Government For Help

The Starship rocket exploded last week (photo: x @ArtCandee)

JAKARTA - Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, revealed that their efforts to evacuate the debris of the Starship rocket that exploded last week encountered obstacles. In a statement on Thursday 26 June, SpaceX called the involvement of the authorities as well as the location of debris in Mexico as the main challenge in the evacuation process.

A dramatic explosion of Starship rockets occurred during trials in Texas and caused debris to fly in various directions. Some debris even reportedly fell and partly sank in the Rio Grande River, near the Matamoros region, Mexico.

"The debris caused by the anomaly belongs to SpaceX and we are trying to recover it. However, this effort was hampered due to parties who entered without permission on private property," SpaceX wrote via social media X.

SpaceX said it had requested assistance from Mexico's local and federal governments, as well as offering resources and support for the location clearing process.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that her government was investigating the security and environmental impacts of SpaceX's rocket launch, particularly against the state of Tamaulipas which is directly adjacent to Texas.

"We are conducting a general review to find out what international law violations are happening. From there, we will start the legal process, because there has been pollution," Sheinbaum said at a press conference in the morning.

The Starship rocket explosion was not the first to occur this year. In March 2025, one of the rockets exploded in space minutes after a launch from Texas, causing the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to stop air traffic in parts of Florida. Meanwhile, in January, a similar incident caused debris to fall in the Caribbean region and even damaged a car in the Turks Islands and Caicos.

This successive explosion is a serious challenge for SpaceX's ambitious program in developing Starship as a vehicle for human transport to Mars.