A YouTuber recorded himself last month in SpaceX’s Starship rocket facilities in southern Texas. No security prevented him from wandering under the SN11, the 16-storey long rocket prototype that would launch and explode a few days later.
The video was posted on a small YouTube channel called Loco VlogS, which is managed by ‘Caesar’. Caesar did not respond to several emails and DMs and asked for comment.
For space lovers, SpaceX’s expansive rocket campus in Texas, just a few miles north of the Rio Grande, is a provocative rocket museum just laid out in public and houses millions of dollars in technology – some of which provided SpaceX to the air force. and NASA. It does not have the high walls or advanced security that one would expect to protect a sensitive (and potentially dangerous) rocket hardware.
The development of Starship, the centerpiece of Elon Musk’s goal of transporting humans and cargo to the Moon and Mars, is being helped in part by a $ 135 million NASA contract to help process its design under the Human Lunar program. Landing of the agency.
“NASA takes safety and security very seriously,” said agency spokeswoman Monica Witt. ‘The contracts of the Human Landing System contain requirements for the contractors to protect information, software and hardware in an appropriate manner. SpaceX has informed NASA that they are investigating this incident. ”
Caesar entered the rocket site and apparently moved around easily with SpaceX hardware and equipment, recording close-range shots of Starship SN11’s Raptor engines. The video received 5 likes and at least 100 dislikes, as well as an avalanche of comments from the outraged SpaceX fans, before removing it, according to another YouTube account that archived the video. In a classic YouTube move, Caesar posted an apology video on April 1 a few days later.
“Yes, it was wrong, yes, it was illegal,” he said in the video of apology. “But in my eyes, at that moment, I did not really think about it … What came to my mind was, ‘Okay, I’ll never get this opportunity again. “That’s why I worked for it. And it happened. ‘
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the launch and launch of infrastructure for the sake of public safety, said it was aware of the video and brought it to SpaceX’s attention.. “Maintaining the physical safety of a launch facility is an important aspect of ensuring public safety,” a spokesman said. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
The site has already had similar security issues. In 2019, a SpaceX fan was arrested after posting photos of himself near another Starship prototype on social media.