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The dust from SpaceX's Starship launch that residents of Port Isabel were showered with in April might just have been sand from the beach, according to fresh analysis. The first Starship orbital test flight was quite an event - stunning observers with the scale of the rocket that successfully flew on its first test flight attempt and shocking them due to the damage left to the launchpad and the dust that fell on nearby Port Isabel in the aftermath.

Now, it appears as if residents of Port Isabel might have encountered sand from the beach instead of chunks of concrete and Fondag from the launch pad shows a spectral analysis of the dust samples.

Spectral Analysis of Port Isabel Dust After Starship Test Launch Shows It Was Most Likely Sand

Dr. Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida, ran the analysis of the dust samples from Port Isabel. He has decades of experience in space flight, and has previously researched debris resulting from the launch of NASA's Space Shuttle. Before joining the University of Central Florida in 2014, he worked at NASA for nearly three decades starting from 1985.

His initial spectral analysis of the dust that covered cars in Port Isabel shows that it did not contain elements of the concrete and Fondag that rained down on the beach close to the launch site. Fondag is a special form of concrete that is known for its high strength and durability. According to SpaceX's chief Mr. Elon Musk, his firm had bet on the Fondag being able to withstand the massive forces from the world's rocket launch at the time of launch, but SpaceX was proven wrong as the concrete disintegrated instead.

According to Dr. Metgzer, neither the dust's visible nor the infrared spectrum shows similarities with the concrete and Fondag. His team will analyze more samples to gain confidence from the results, after which they will be sent for Raman spectroscopy. This will analyze the detailed chemical composition of the dust, and he believes that if the Raman analysis also shows that the dust is dissimilar to concrete, then the most likely explanation of its origin is that it is sand from under the concrete at SpaceX's launch pad.

SpaceX's Starship blazes through the skies, as it successfully lifts off despite being the world's most complex and most powerful rocket - and the first of its kind developed by a private company. Image: SpaceX

He adds that NASA is also interested in analyzing the dust from the Starship launch since it will help the agency develop launch sites on the Moon. Quite fitting since Starship is NASA's first rocket of choice to land humans on the Moon, and the second stage Starship will take off from the lunar surface to transport astronauts back to either the Orion spacecraft or NASA's lunar space station called the Gateway for their return to Earth.

According to Dr. Metzger:

NASA is interested in this research because it will help inform how to build lunar launch pads. We've never seen a launch pad event like this, and it has similarities to expected failure modes of lunar launch pads.

He also believes that the dust particles were not dangerous for human health, since most of them were large enough not to be breathable. Those that were breathable were in insufficient quantities to pose a health hazard.

SpaceX's Starship launch triggered concerns about the rocket being a health hazard due to damage to the pad, and the company will have to work closely with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before it can attempt another launch. According to Mr. Musk, this attempt can occur within two months.