US Air Force suspends SpaceX rocket project on Pacific atoll, report says

The U.S. Air Force has suspended plans it had proposed with Elon Musk's SpaceX to test hypersonic rocket cargo deliveries from a remote Pacific atoll, according to a report this week in Stars and Stripes, an independent publication of the U.S. military. The suspension came after Reuters reported that biologists and experts said the project would harm many seabirds that nest at the wildlife refuge on the Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated U.S. territory nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) southwest of Hawaii. The Air Force had said it would undertake an environmental assessment of the project, but publication of a draft assessment was delayed after opposition to the plan by environmental groups.

The Air Force and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Air Force is exploring alternative locations for the program, a spokesperson of the military branch told the Stars and Stripes newspaper in story published on Thursday.

The program would use commercial rockets, such as those made by SpaceX, although the Air Force has not announced private partners. It would test landing rocket re-entry vehicles designed to deliver up to 100 tons of cargo to anywhere on Earth within about 90 minutes. The program would be a breakthrough for military logistics by making it easier to move supplies quickly into distant locations.

But it could be too much for the island's 14 species of tropical birds to withstand, according to biologists and experts who have worked on the one-square-mile (2.6 square km) atoll, part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. SpaceX's activities have affected protected birds elsewhere. A SpaceX launch of its Starship rocket in Boca Chica, Texas, last year involved a blast that destroyed nests and eggs of plover shorebirds, landing the company of billionaire Musk in legal trouble and leading him to remark jokingly that he would refrain from eating omelets for a week to compensate.

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