Launch facility damage
Damage to the launch pad and ground equipment during a firing or test, an exposure distinct from the vehicle's and usually written separately.
April 20, 2023, Boca Chica: Starship's first integrated flight digs a crater under its launch mount and throws chunks of concrete hundreds of meters. A launch pad is an expensive, barely reproducible industrial structure: launch mount, flame trenches, cryogenic tanks, deluge and safety systems. Rebuilding one takes months or years, and each site has exactly one. The exposure is twofold. It is physical, since an explosion at lift-off or a static fire gone wrong damages the facility far beyond the vehicle itself. It is also operational: a pad that is down halts the operator's entire order book, including missions whose hardware is intact and ready. That second component, business interruption on a unique asset, is what makes the exposure hard to transfer. The launch policy covers payload and third-party liability, not the site operator's own property. For want of market capacity sized to a value concentrated on a single point, large operators usually retain it or place it in a captive. It is one of the few space assets whose principal insurer is the owner itself.
On April 20, 2023, the first integrated flight test of the SpaceX Starship system severely damaged the Boca Chica launch mount and threw concrete debris several hundred meters. The Federal Aviation Administration required a mishap investigation before any return to flight.
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