SpaceX’s Blasts Allowed Near Public Beach by Texas Top Court

SpaceX can continue to launch rockets near a public beach in Texas, the state supreme court said Friday, concluding that private environmental groups seeking to stop them for safety reasons lack a legal remedy to do so.

Only a public entity can sue over a beach closure, the unanimous court said. And in this dispute on whether the closures conflict with a voter-approved right to unrestricted beach access, the state and the county where SpaceX resides defended the launches.

“The defendants, all of whom are governmental actors, retain their immunity from suit,” Justice Rebeca Huddle wrote for the court.

The ruling comes one week after SpaceX’s historic $75 billion initial public offering.

The Open Beach Act from 2009 “did not expand or confer on private citizens a right of enforcement or otherwise alter the preexisting enforcement scheme, which resided with governmental actors alone,” Huddle said.

The decision means Elon Musk‘s space exploration company can continue to blast off from private property near the eight-mile strip of public beach that Cameron County had agreed to close for the launches.

The justices limited the decision to one of standing, declining to answer the bigger question of when the state can temporarily close a public beach to protect public safety.

The case involved a challenge to a 2013 state law allowing Cameron County to temporarily close access to the beach for the purpose of the flights. The environmental groups—SaveRGV, Sierra Club, and Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas Inc.— said it violated the state’s bill of rights voters passed four years earlier guaranteeing access to public beaches.

SpaceX used the beach for 450 hours a year for several years beginning in 2019. The company says it now uses it less frequently.

Had the justices ruled the beach must remain open, SpaceX said it would’ve had to choose between ending the launches or continuing them and risk drawing federal safety violations.

During oral arguments in March, several justices compared the dangers posed by the blasts to a severe weather event during which the government can close a beach. Yet, Friday’s ruling didn’t answer whether the blasts are enough of a safety hazard to close the beach.

The environmental groups’ lawyer, Nina Perales of Perales, Allmon & Ice PC, conceded during oral arguments that there are some man-made events that would justify the closure. But before she could name any, Justice James Sullivan chimed in sarcastically: “Just not this one.”

The decision reverses a February 2024 appeals court ruling that allowed the groups to sue the state and Cameron County to keep the beach open.

Cameron County is represented by Allison, Bass & Magee LLP.

Texas is represented by the state attorney general’s office.

The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

The case is Tex. Gen. Land Off. v. SaveRGV, Tex., No. 24-0237, 6/19/26, Cameron Co. v. SaveRGV, Tex., No. 24-0407, 6/19/26, and Paxton v. SaveRGV, Tex., No. 24-0457, 6/19/26.