As SpaceX has grown its footprint in the area, it's also caused environmental and safety concerns.

Twenty-seven different organizations from across the Rio Grande Valley and the state signed a letter opposing the launch.

“A billionaire is closing our beach to use the land to test his experimental technology putting the lives of locals at risk while destroying acres of a wildlife reserve,” Sierra Club Brownsville Organizer, Emma Guevara said in a statement. “Who will be held accountable for the destruction this company consistently causes when the government continues to ignore community members’ very real and very serious concerns.”

Those concerns grew following Thursday’s launch, and the explosion that followed about 20 miles off the coast of South Padre Island.

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