The US Air Force has suspended plans as it had suggested with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to test hypersonic rocket carving supplies from a remote Pacific, according to a report this week in Stars and Stripes, an independent publication of the US military.
The suspension came after Reuters Reported that biologists and experts said the project would hurt many seabirds hooking in Wildlife Refuge at Johnston Atoll, a non -ink -corporate American territory nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) southwest of Hawaii.
The air defense had said that it would carry out an environmental assessment of the project, but the publication of a draft assessment was delayed after opposition to the plan from environmental groups.
The air defense and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The air defense is investigating alternative locations for the program, told a spokesman for the military branch Stars and stripes Newspaper in a story published on Thursday.
The program would use commercial rockets, such as those made by SpaceX, even if the Air Force has not announced private partners.
It would test landing Rocket-Genine travel vehicles designed to deliver up to 100 tonnes of loads to anywhere on the ground within approx. 90 minutes. The program would be a breakthrough for military logistics by making it easier to move supplies quickly to distant places.
But it could be too much for the island’s 14 species of tropical birds to resist, according to biologists and experts who have worked on a square kilometer (2.6 square kilometers 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 an explosion that destroyed nests and eggs of Plover coastal birds, landed the company with billionaire musk in legal trouble and led him to notice jokingly that he would refrain from eating omelets for a week to compensate.
