Back in March, I posted about how the FAA was holding back SpaceX's revolutionary Starship program. Now, after a reasonably successful test flight in June, SpaceX has issued a statement outlining its disagreements with the way that the FAA is holding up a license for the next launch.
If you don't want to read the whole thing, Ars Technica has a good article (with lots of links) summarizing the current situation.
Tuesday's update from SpaceX was the most aggressive statement the company has released about the FAA's slow processing of launch license applications, and it touched on a deeper complaint than the FAA's lack of resources for oversight of commercial space activities. The company suggested the hold-up for launching Starship's next test flight isn't SpaceX's technical readiness or even that an understaffed FAA is overwhelmed with regulating a fast-growing commercial launch industry.
Instead, SpaceX wrote in a statement to the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics that licensing delays are caused by bureaucratic sluggishness, a lack of transparency, poor methodologies, and regulatory inefficiency and duplication. As an example, SpaceX cited roadblocks with its ongoing application for a launch license for the fifth Starship test flight.
"This delay was not based on a new safety concern, but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis," SpaceX said. "The four open environmental issues are illustrative of the difficulties launch companies face in the current regulatory environment for launch and reentry licensing."
I'm not a fan of Elon Musk these days (I will never forgive him for what he's done to Twitter and his behaviour there has been abhorrent), but I do think SpaceX is right to complain here.
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