US Air Force halts SpaceX rocket project on remote Pacific atoll: report

The US Air Force has halted its proposed plans with Elon Musk's SpaceX to test hypersonic rocket cargo deliveries from a remote Pacific atoll, according to a recent report in Stars and Stripes, an independent US military publication.

The decision follows a Reuters report in which biologists and experts warned that the project could endanger numerous seabirds nesting at the Johnston Atoll wildlife refuge, a US territory located about 800 miles (1,300 kilometres) 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 programme, a spokesperson of the military branch told the Stars and Stripes newspaper in a story published on Thursday.

The programme 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 tonnes of cargo to anywhere on Earth within about 90 minutes. The programme 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 omelettes for a week to compensate.