US Air Force suspends SpaceX rocket project on Pacific atoll, report says

Washington (Reuters) -ABD Air Force has suspended plans to test the Hypersonic Rocket Cargo delivery from a pacific atol of SpaceX with SpaceX, according to a report this week in Stars and Stipes, an independent publication of the US army.

The suspension came after Reuters said that biologists and experts would damage many marine -wild nesting in the wildlife shelter in the Johnston Atolu, a US zone in the southwest of Hawaii, a US zone of Hawaii.

The Air Force said that the project would undertake an environmental assessment, but the publication of a draft assessment was postponed by the environmental groups after opposing the plan.

Air Force and SpaceX did not respond immediately to comments requests.

The military branch spokesman told the Story in Stars and Stipes newspaper, which was published on Thursday, is investigating alternative places for the Air Force program.

The program would use commercial rockets such as SpaceX, despite the fact that the Air Force did not explain special partners.

In about 90 minutes, the landing rocket designed to provide up to 100 tons of cargo anywhere in the world would test the re -entry tools. The program will be a breakthrough for military logistics by making it easier to move the materials to remote places quickly.

However, according to a single square meter (2.6 km) atolic biologists and experts, which are part of the Naval National Monument of the Pacific Narradles, the island can be very high to rely on 14 tropical bird species.

SpaceX’s activities influenced the birds protected elsewhere. Last year, Boca Chica’s SpaceX launch of Starship Rocket in Texas, Plover, destroyed the nests and eggs of the coastal birds, the billionaire Musk company, which descended with legal problems and directed to avoid eating for a week to compensate for it.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)