This piece originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Tensions between SpaceX and its federal regulators have spilled into public view. The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking $633,009 in civil fines, alleging that the company neglected necessary paperwork for two 2023 launches. SpaceX has refuted those claims in a letter to Congress, arguing that the FAA is engaged in an arbitrary and politicized prosecution from an agency unable to keep up with the demands of commercial spaceflight. CEO Elon Musk has vowed to sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach.”
The issue underscores a larger problem: The FAA’s issuing a launch license to SpaceX constitutes a “major federal action” under the National Environmental Policy Act, requiring a full environmental review and often subsequent mitigation measures. For SpaceX programs alone, this has included monitoring the discomfort of the seal population outside what is now Vandenberg Space Force Base, funding “educational outreach” about a surrounding area’s “cultural heritage,” and ensuring that the company’s operations don’t disturb the wintering grounds of the piping plover.
Such provisions, however laborious for SpaceX, also impede the U.S. military’s deployment of important assets. The company’s Starship Super Heavy system, the most powerful rocket ever flown, is critical to our national defense. In the event of a conflict that damaged America’s satellite network, the Starship would offer a unique and rapid spacelift-launch system to restore pivotal navigation, communications and early-warning capabilities. Yet as global threats loom, the earliest the Space Force anticipates even finishing its environmental review process for the Starship Super Heavy to operate out of Cape Canaveral, Fla., is next autumn.
