Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated US territory and Pacific island wildlife refuge with a complicated military history, is no longer slated to become a SpaceX reusable rocket test site. The Department of the Air Force’s confirmation, first provided to Stars and Stripes, came ahead of a planned environment assessment and amid mounting pressure from conservationists. Despite a nearly century-long background that includes nuclear and chemical weapons testing and storage, the atoll remains a home for 14 tropical bird species as part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

“The Department of the Air Force has elected to hold the preparation of the Johnston Atoll Environmental Assessment for a proposed rocket cargo landing demonstration on Johnston Atoll in abeyance while the service explores alternative options for implementation,” Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls said in the email.

Johnston Atoll has served as a base for numerous US military operations for over 90 years. Located roughly 860 miles southwest of Hawai’i, the island hosted an airfield during World War II before operating as a launch site for atmospheric nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s, some of which resulted in plutonium contamination at the atoll. The US government then requisitioned the area for chemical weapons experiments with similar consequences before ultimately cordoning it as a remote storage depot for the same deadly biological agents.

In the years since, increasing public pressure resulted in extensive efforts to decontaminate and restore the one-square-mile island. Now, the US oversees Johnston Atoll similarly to its pre-military days, when it originally functioned as the Johnston Island Reservation.

Those decades of progress appeared in jeopardy earlier this year. In March, the Air Force first announced intentions to once again requisition the unincorporated US territory, this time for its Research Laboratory’s Rocket Cargo Vanguard Program. The US Space Force-affiliated endeavor aims to establish a system to deliver as much as 100 tons of cargo to anywhere on Earth in less than 90 minutes.

“In the event of conflict or humanitarian crisis, the Space Force will be able to provide our national leadership with an independent option to achieve strategic objectives from space,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay ” Raymond said during the program’s announcement.

The project will require reliable, reusable commercial rockets to work. While not explicitly named, the current state of the private space industry and Department of Defense contracts strongly leaned towards SpaceX’s involvement. Elon Musk’s company remains the US government’s primary contractor for reusable rocketry, despite multiple recent setbacks and political firestorms.

The Johnston Atoll plans included the construction of two landing pads that were met with public backlash from wildlife experts and indigenous representatives, including a Change.org petition organized by the Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition to halt the project.

“In a time when our Earth is rapidly changing, we must commit to its restoration and healing,” PIHC chair and native Hawai’ian elder Solomon Kahoʻohalahala said at the time. “The proposal by the Air Force to construct landing pads and test massive rocket cargo operations at Kalama [Johnston Atoll] only continues decades of harm and abuse to a place that is culturally and biologically tied to us as Pacific people.”

The Air Force responded with assurances of a full environmental review before any rocket tests would ever begin. By June, the blowback grew to include a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, which cited a failure to release public records on the rocket program plans.

SpaceX is no stranger to environmental complaints. Last year, an expose revealed a trove of internal communications and documents indicating the company had violated the EPA’s Clean Water Act for years by dumping wastewater from its Starship base near Boca Chica, Texas. The SpaceX facility is also located adjacent to protected wildlife lands that are also considered sacred by local indigenous communities. Later investigations indicate launches from Starship—currently the world’s most powerful rocket system—are so powerful that they may even kill nearby wildlife, including endangered birds.

The Air Force said as part of last week’s update that it now plans to consider alternative sites, which previously included Midway Island, Wake Island, and Kwajalein Atoll. It’s unclear if Johnston Atoll will reenter the equation.

“A notification will be published via [the] Federal Register if the DAF decides to restart the action or ultimately cancel the Environmental Assessment,” the Air Force said in last week’s announcement.

In a statement provided to Popular Science, PIHC director Sheila Sarhangi said the coalition is “pleased” with the latest news, calling the rocket cargo plans “destructive and short-sighted.”

“Kalama (Johnston Atoll) is culturally and biologically tied to Pacific people—and it’s already endured decades of abuse, including chemical and nuclear contamination from US military operations,” Sarhangi said. “This moment shows that collective advocacy works. We will continue to stand for the protection and healing of this special place.”

 

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