The owner of a home near Waco Regional Airport is suing SpaceX, seeking up to $1 million for foundation damage he blames on rocket engine tests.
SpaceX has tested rocket engines and thrusters since 2003 at its Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, some 27 miles from the plaintiff’s home in the 10100 block of Aragon Drive.
Edward Leslie says in his lawsuit that SpaceX rocket testing, including a firing on Feb. 22, 2023, damaged this home, causing cracks in walls, ceilings and floors.
Leslie’s suit says that SpaceX’s “negligent testing of rockets and the rockets’ continuous vibrations” caused his foundation to shift.
“Due to the shifting of the home (Leslie) incurred significant damage such as the walls and ceiling cracking on the interior of the home, the brick walls and the floor cracking on the exterior of the home, as well as the interior doors do not stay open,” the suit says.
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The suit argues that SpaceX’s conduct of rocket engine testing at the McGregor facility “proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety or welfare of others.”
Leslie also accuses SpaceX of “gross negligence” and seeks “an award of exemplary damages in excess of the minimum jurisdiction limits of the court.” The suit asks for damages between $250,000 and $1 million as well as interest and attorney’s fees.
The Corpus Christi law firm of Carrigan & Anderson PLLC declined comment when reached by the Tribune-Herald on Monday.
Neither SpaceX’s media relations office, nor the company’s registered agent Corporation Service Company in Austin, could be reached for comment Monday. Court records did not indicate Monday that SpaceX had been served yet with the suit.
Leslie bought the home in May 2021, McLennan Central Appraisal District records show, more than 13 years after SpaceX’s first test firing of a Falcon 9 rocket at the McGregor facility.
He filed the suit April 26 in Waco’s 170th State District Court.
According to the SpaceX website, the facility has 16 testing stands and “validates for flight every Merlin engine that powers the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and every Draco thruster that controls the Dragon spacecraft.”