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SpaceX is making progress on its mission to take astronauts to the moon, and then on to Mars.

The latest launch, which saw Starship SN10 land successfully before exploding, was a massive stride forward for the company.

What appeared to be a ‘soft landing’ was actually a bit more crunchy than ground control initially thought.

Elon Musk explained on Tuesday that “impact of 10 m/s (35km/h) crushed legs and part of skirt”.

The engine, he says, was low on thrust.

It’s onwards and upwards from there with plans to expand the operation, but not everyone is thrilled with one of the recently proposed future launchpads outside of America.

The Guardian reports that Indonesia offered up the island of Biak in Papua as a potential launch site, but local residents are saying that Musk and his company aren’t welcome on their land.

They argue that it will have a devastating impact on their island’s ecosystem, encourage deforestation, and increase Indonesian military presence.

An Indonesian government representative told the Guardian this week the planned spaceport was being developed in consultation with the Papuan government and local communities, and that Biak’s development as a “Space Island” would “bring positive economic impacts” for islanders.

The fear that military presence will increase is also justified.

In July 1998, the island of Biak was the site of one of the worst massacres in the history of Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua. Scores of civilians were tortured and killed, and their bodies dumped at sea. This was allegedly at the hands of Indonesian security forces.

A tribal chief on the island, Manfun Sroyer, said he feared Papuans will be driven from their homes.

“This spaceport will cost us our traditional hunting grounds, damaging the nature our way of life depends on. But, if we protest, we’ll be arrested immediately.”

“In 2002, Russians wanted our land for satellite launches. We protested and many were arrested and interrogated… now they’ve brought it back, and this harassment and intimidation is still going on,” Manfun Sroyer said.

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, also has plans to develop a rocket launch site on Biak island by 2024.

Biak is ideally situated for launching low-orbit satellites for communications because it lies one degree below the equator, with its eastern coast facing the Pacific ocean.

Musk told Indonesian officials in July Tesla would offer a “giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way”.

West Papua’s vast natural resources include copper and nickel, which are two of the most important metals for rockets as well as the long-range batteries used in electric vehicles.

“It’s a tiny island,” Benny Wenda the exiled leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and interim president told the Guardian.

“It’s already destroying ecosystems and threatening the survival of the people of Biak. They just want to live simply, without this destruction coming to the island.”

While international investment might seem like a good idea for the Indonesian government, it’s worth noting that Papuans would prefer that they too stay off their land.

They have consistently resisted Indonesian rule, waging a long-running campaign for independence that to date, has cost upwards of 100 000 lives.

[source:guardian]