By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

LEADING environmentalist Joe Darville is concerned about government’s first-stage agreement with SpaceX for rocket landings in The Bahamas.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX, which manufactures and launches spacecraft and rockets.

“As an environmentalist and someone who’s extremely concerned about our precious and vulnerable environment, I certainly do have concerns, and if any decision is being taken by the government to accommodate this landing in our territory, then everything should be put out there to the public with respect to any harm to be done, whether it’s to the area where it’s gonna land, or whether or not any vibratory matters are concerned with respect to animals and specifically to birds,” Mr Darville said yesterday.

The Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation announced the signing of a letter of agreement with SpaceX over the weekend.

The ministry said SpaceX is designing space exploration missions where one of the company’s autonomous drone ships will serve as a Falcon 9 landing location east of The Exumas.

The ministry said this will provide the platform for “a spectacle that will be visible only in The Bahamas”.

Mr Darville said: “In the past, some stuff has landed in our ocean but now in modern times, when we are concerned about our atmosphere, and ocean and our land, a little bit of land that we have, and the species that we have in The Bahamas, we got to be extremely reticent about anything that may not have been traditionally landing or taking place to be landed in our territory and islands or wherever.

“I would say that the government should be upright and forthright in revealing to us any particular elements that may be impacted by such a landing in our territory. The people need to know.”