By EARYEL BOWLEG 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE government will publicly release the environmental study related to its agreement with SpaceX to land rocket boosters in The Bahamas, according to Latrae Rahming, director of communications at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy, director of the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, later told The Tribune that the document is expected to be posted once several administrative issues are resolved, possibly within a day.

On Tuesday, The Bahamas became the first country outside the United States to host a successful landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster, which touched down on a drone ship in Exuma Sound.

However, former Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira criticised the government’s failure to make an environmental impact assessment (EIA) publicly available before the landings. He said this lack of transparency reflected a broader pattern of secrecy and weak accountability on environmental issues.

Citing the Environmental Planning and Protection Act of 2019, Mr Ferreira noted that the law requires all EIAs to be publicly accessible. He argued that once the assessment was completed, public consultations should have been held in Exuma, the area most affected. The documents, he said, should have been made available to residents in both Exuma and New Providence and published online for nationwide access.

He questioned the long-term environmental impact of allowing rocket debris to fall into Bahamian waters.