The motion follows stress between the corporate and the regulatory company. In 2021, the FAA mentioned in an announcement that SpaceX launched a prototype of its Starship rocket in violation of its launch license. Before that December take a look at flight, SpaceX had sought a waiver that may have allowed it “to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations,” the FAA mentioned.
After that waiver was denied, SpaceX proceeded with the launch anyway, the FAA mentioned.
At the time, Musk criticized the company saying: “Unlike its aircraft division, which is fine, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure,” he wrote on Twitter in 2021. “Their rules are meant for a handful of expendable launches per year from a few government facilities. Under those rules, humanity will never get to Mars.”
In response, the FAA mentioned that it “will not compromise its responsibility to protect public safety. We will approve the modification only after we are satisfied that SpaceX has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements.”
Those necessities have been met after simply a few months, and the FAA granted SpaceX extra launch licenses for its Starship program. The firm is now awaiting a license for its first try to launch Starship into orbit. The firm hopes that launch may come as early as subsequent month.
SpaceX launched its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket 61 occasions final 12 months, an unprecedented cadence because it moved quick to place its Starlink constellation of satellites into orbit. It was for a kind of launches that SpaceX didn’t submit the collision chance knowledge, the FAA mentioned.
SpaceX has 30 days to reply to the FAA.
A spokesman for SpaceX didn’t reply to a request for remark.