FAA's Insane Decision to STOP SpaceX Orbital Starship Test Flight
FAA's Insane Decision to STOP SpaceX Orbital Starship Test Flight
SpaceX’s Starship rocket has been in development in southeast Texas, with major progress being made on key elements like the launch tower construction, and installation of the vacuum-rated Raptor engines that will power the vehicle once it reaches space. But SpaceX will require approvals from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make the attempt, as it has for all of its prior test flights of Starship from its development location outside of Brownsville, Texas. The FAA basically requires that SpaceX demonstrate it has taken all necessary safety precautions to ensure that there’s minimal risk in case of anything going wrong during the launch attempts.
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At this stage of development, that’s not even a highly unlikely outcome: SpaceX has already seen a number of its Starship prototypes explode (or experience “rapid, unscheduled disassembly,” as it’s often known in the industry) during the development program. Starship testing has also had its successes, however, including completing high-altitude flight tests that are still within Earth’s atmosphere and bringing the spacecraft back down for a controlled landing.
The next major milestone for SpaceX is flying a fully stacked version of its Starship and Super Heavy booster combo beyond Earth’s atmosphere and to outer space. As told by Musk, the company is technically ready for that step, but that regulatory approval could take a lot longer than a month to materialize if the FAA’s recent call for public comments on granting a launch license is any indication.
During town hall meetings this past week, supporters and detractors both got very vocal and raised a number of issues that the FAA will have to review and address along with SpaceX before proceeding to the next step. The FAA could forestall resolving some of these by issuing a temporary license for the purpose of a test and revisiting ongoing launch permissions, however.
The hearing, which lasted nearly four hours, drew passionate support for SpaceX's plans to expand its Starbase facility as well as heated opposition. Limited to comments of three minutes or less, nearly five dozen people spoke during the hearing over Zoom.
By my informal counting, the comments tallied 39 in favor of the project and 18 against. The comments in favor of SpaceX were more likely to come from out of state, from people generally appreciative of the company's efforts to make humanity a "multi-planetary species." However, there were plenty of local supporters as well.
Most of those who spoke against the project said they lived near Brownsville, or in the state of Texas. They cited a mix of environmental concerns, including wildlife habitat destruction, and impacts on the South Texas community, such as gentrification.
Several proponents of SpaceX said they had grown up near Cape Canaveral, in Florida, or other launch sites around the planet and had not seen environmental degradation in the vicinity. Rohan Joseph, who identified himself as an aerospace engineer, "lifelong environmentalist," and birder, cited the protection of sea turtles at launch sites in India as an example of the positive effects of a launch site on an area.
He also wondered why SpaceX appeared to be receiving so much scrutiny for its launch site when there was a former oil drilling site in the vicinity, or if the environment was so pristine, why nearby South Padre Island had been allowed to be built up. "If SpaceX were an oil exploration company, there would be no questions asked," Joseph said.
A number of supporters also cited the project's ability to inspire a new generation of Texans. Gail Afar, a registered nurse in Texas, works with children in schools, and she said their eyes light up when the topic of SpaceX is raised.
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