Eighty South Texas homeowners woke up to cracked walls, shattered windows, and damaged roofs. The cause was not a storm or an earthquake. It was SpaceX.

Last week, those residents filed a federal lawsuit accusing SpaceX of gross negligence and trespassing stemming from sonic booms during 11 Starship rocket tests between April 2023 and October 2025. During a single 2023 launch, the force from SpaceX's 33-engine booster destroyed the launch pad itself and sent debris flying as far as three-quarters of a mile. These are not minor disturbances. These are repeated, damaging impacts on people's homes and communities, and SpaceX has yet to answer for them.

What makes this worse is that the problem is only going to grow. The Federal Aviation Administration authorized SpaceX to conduct up to 25 rocket launches per year from its South Texas site, five times more than the year before. There has been no independent review of the cumulative damage those launches cause to nearby homes. There is no mandatory compensation fund for residents whose properties are damaged. And SpaceX has also forced the closure of an eight-mile stretch of public beach near the launch site, cutting off access that South Texans have had for generations.

No other major industrial operation gets to damage private property, close public land, and expand without accountability. An oil company that caused this level of harm to a community would face mandatory remediation funds, independent safety reviews, and federal oversight. SpaceX should be no different.

We are calling on the FAA and Congress to act on four fronts. First, freeze SpaceX's 25-launch-per-year authorization until an independent body completes a full assessment of cumulative damage to homes, public land, and wildlife in the surrounding area. Second, require SpaceX and all rocket launch operators to establish mandatory compensation funds for homeowners whose properties are damaged by launches, just as other industries are required to fund remediation for the harm they cause. Third, require community impact assessments and noise and debris mitigation plans before any expansion of launch operations. And fourth, close the regulatory loopholes that allow rocket companies to sidestep the same accountability standards applied to every other major industrial operation in this country.

South Texas residents did not sign up to live next to a rocket range. They deserve the same protections under the law as anyone else.