As SpaceX gears up for the 12th test flight of its Starship vehicle - the first for the upgraded Version 3 - it's also facing a new legal headache from locals who say the rocket's roar is doing a number on their houses.
Airspace advisories filed last week point to a launch window starting as soon as May 12 from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas, with daily opportunities through May 18. The company hasn't officially announced a date yet, as it continues testing the vehicle and ground infrastructure. This will be the first Starship launch since an October 2025 flight, and the first for the v3 configuration, which includes upgrades to both the upper stage and Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX had originally planned to fly v3 early this year, but a November test incident that damaged a Super Heavy booster pushed things back. After that, CEO Elon Musk offered a series of optimistic timelines: six weeks in late January, four weeks in early March, and then four to six weeks in early April - which lands us in the first half of May. So, consistent in the way a broken clock is right twice a day.
Flight 12 will be suborbital, like its predecessors, but it's a crucial step toward orbital launches for next-gen Starlink satellites and NASA's Artemis lunar program. Meanwhile, the environmental impact of Starship launches from the Gulf Coast site near the Mexico border has been a running sore for years. SpaceX has federal approvals, but not everyone is thrilled.
The latest salvo came April 30, when dozens of residents filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas, claiming their homes have been damaged by previous launches. The plaintiffs, mostly from Port Isabel and South Padre Island - the two closest communities to Starbase - argue that the intense engine noise from liftoff and Super Heavy's return, plus sonic booms, have caused structural damage.
The complaint doesn't list specific damage but cites noise and overpressure levels that exceed thresholds for structural harm. Measurements from an October 2024 launch recorded peak noise above 110 decibels as far as 35 kilometers away - a level where things start breaking. The same flight produced sonic booms from Super Heavy's return with overpressures over five pounds per square foot within 15 kilometers of the pad, enough to crack windows and rattle structures, according to some assessments.
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified "economic and non-economic damages" to be determined at trial. Launch noise and booms have also been a concern at Cape Canaveral, where a November 2025 environmental assessment for a new Starship site noted "relatively high-level noise and overpressure environments" that could annoy neighbors and possibly damage structures inside the spaceport itself. So at least SpaceX is consistent in its ability to make a lot of noise - and a lot of enemies.