Elon Musk and FAA disagree on SN9 rocket launch
Last Thursday was to take place the launch of a SpaceX Starship rocket. All the preparations had already been made, the roads were closed, the fuel tanks had been loaded and SpaceX had even announced the flight on its website. The only thing missing to allow the company to launch its rocket was FAA approval. However, SpaceX did not get it.
Elon Musk blasted the FAA on Twitter
The FAA effectively refused to close its airspace, a key criterion for launching the rocket. This earned the agency a strong remonstrance of Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, towards them. Moreover, the leader did not fail to share his anger on social networks on Thursday afternoon. He thus declared that:
Unlike its aerospace division, which is fine, the FAA’s space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure. Their rules are intended for a handful of consumable launches per year from a few government facilities. According to these rules, humanity will never reach Mars
Unlike its aircraft division, which is fine, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure.
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.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021
SpaceX reportedly struggles with its launch license
According to a statement made by the agency to Business Insider, one of the reasons the FAA refused the launch is because it was still evaluating changes to SpaceX’s launch license. An FAA spokesperson said in the statement that “ FAA will continue to work with SpaceX to assess additional information provided by the company as part of its launch license amendment “.
It is not known what modification this is. But former FAA administrator George Nield also said that would not be the only reason for the FAA’s refusal. According to him, this would have something to do with the launch of SpaceX’s previous prototype, the SN8 rocket which exploded while landing on Earth. SpaceX would not have indeed provided satisfactory explanations to the FAA on this incident. Likewise, it would appear that SpaceX even violated terms of its license during this SN8 test flight, although details of that violation were also not disclosed.
SpaceX’s rockets could stay on the ground for a while
In any case, SpaceX said that the SN9 launch could be done as early as Monday 1er March, but so far the FAA has not issued an airspace closure notice to allow this launch. Still, the Cameron County judge has already issued notices of road closures in Boca Chica on upcoming Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For his part, the spokesperson for the FAA simply stated that “ While we recognize the importance of acting quickly to foster growth and innovation in the commercial space, the FAA will not compromise its responsibility to protect public safety. We will approve the change only when we are satisfied that SpaceX has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements. “.
In other words, it’s not yet clear when SpaceX’s rocket launches will have, which really isn’t to enchant Elon Musk. Case to be continued.
