SpaceX is proceeding with two major milestones with consequences that could be, at a minimum, global. The company, owned by Elon Musk and valued at upwards of US$1.5 trillion, released its financial details on May 20, 2026 in advance of an IPO scheduled for June 12 and anticipated to be the largest in history. Meanwhile, as soon as this evening, May 21, SpaceX plans to test the latest version of its Starship rocket – also the largest of its kind in history – and designed to facilitate a human migration to the Moon and Mars.
But underlying SpaceX’s surges forward are tensions between the company’s activities and concerns about the effects they may be having on the environment.
These tensions were on display in April 2026 as protests by environmental activists took place outside Starbase, its development and testing facility in South Texas, while SpaceX was courting investors.
The Starbase facility is located in a sensitive wetland area along the Gulf Coast that serves as a habitat for birds and a nesting site for sea turtles. Concerned about pollution and launch debris damaging these species and others, environmental groups have filed multiple lawsuits against the company. Federal and state agencies have also fined SpaceX for polluting local waterways.
This conflict is a microcosm of a larger issue: whether the space ambitions of Silicon Valley and Wall Street are fundamentally at odds with the concerns of environmental activists.
Activists protested outside SpaceX’s Starbase facility ahead of the company’s IPO.
Space and conservation at odds?
On the one hand, technologies developed for space often have benefits on Earth. And Musk has argued that SpaceX’s long-term goal of building a city on Mars would help protect life, including humans and other species, by ensuring their survival in the event of an Earthly disaster. But space exploration can also do environmental harm, from space debris causing damage to marine or terrestrial ecosystems to rockets producing pollutants and greenhouse gases, which can contribute to climate change.
As an evolutionary ecologist who spent years studying rainforest insects and more than a decade considering the consequences of space settlement, I can understand both sides of this argument.
I’ve been to Starbase to watch a Starship launch and seen the sensitive wetlands surrounding the launch pad. But I’ve also studied the fossil record and understand how events like the asteroid impact 66 million years ago devastated many of the dominant life forms alive at the time, like most dinosaurs. So I understand the motivation to become a multiplanetary species to help avoid that fate.
