SpaceX set to join FAA to fight environmental lawsuit over Starship

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will join the Federal Aviation Administration as a co-defendant to fight a lawsuit filed by environmental groups after the company’s first test flight of the world’s largest rocket, Starship, ended in recession. Explosion during flight last month.

and Claim submitted In court on Friday, SpaceX asked Federal Judge Carl Nichols to allow the company to join the FAA as a defendant against environmental and cultural heritage nonprofits. sued the aerospace regulator Early this month.

The plaintiffs “do not oppose” the company’s intervention, according to the filing. Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biodiversity and lead plaintiffs’ attorney, said this was “standard, and applicants are expected to intervene in cases where permits are at stake.” said.

The groups that have sued the FAA have provided more details about the possible impact of SpaceX’s activities before the FAA allows the launch of the world’s largest rocket, Starship, from the Starbase facility, a spaceport on the Gulf of Mexico. He argues that a comprehensive environmental survey should have been conducted. Near Brownsville, Texas.

The group also said the “mitigation measures” requested by the agency from SpaceX were to avoid “significant adverse effects” on endangered species, their habitats and tribes in regions that hold land and wildlife sacred. argued that it was not enough.

SpaceX’s filing on Friday outlined the potential impact on the company if environmentalists won the lawsuit, pointing to the impact on the company’s business and finances, as well as undermining “substantial national interests.” It also argues that it is possible that the Starship may be of scientific interest.

“If the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, the FAA’s decision would be void, significantly delaying further approval of the Starship/SuperHeavy program and potentially causing significant harm to SpaceX’s business.” the company wrote.

The lawsuit calls for the FAA to implement an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a lengthy and rigorous process that will likely hinder SpaceX’s Starship operations in Texas for years. would be

the company too wrote in the motion that because the FAA is a government agency, it “did not adequately represent the interests of SpaceX” in the lawsuit. The report noted that the FAA “has a direct and substantial economic interest in the outcome of this lawsuit, which the government does not share.”

In a statement to CNBC, the FAA said it “does not comment on ongoing litigation matters.”

This year alone, the company Plans to spend about $2 billion to develop Starshipaccording to comments made by CEO Musk after its first full-stack launch attempt last month.

Johnsen also highlighted the contract pipeline SpaceX is building for future Starship missions.

SpaceX now has massive NASA contracts worth up to $4.2 billion Use rockets to land astronauts on the moon. In addition, the company signed a commercial customer agreement that includes his three separate missions for high net worth individuals. Jared Isaacman, Yusaku Maezawa and Dennis Tito — Starship, written by Mr. Johnsen, is “worth hundreds of millions of dollars at this point.”

Starship is also important to the future of the company’s Starlink satellite internet business. 1.5 million+ customers. “SpaceX has invested billions of dollars in Starlink so far,” Johnsen said.

Mr. Mask We have previously emphasized interdependencies Of those two projects, Johnsen further reiterated that SpaceX’s launch would require a Starship flight. the second generationor “V2”, a Starlink satellite.

“Without Starship… not only will SpaceX be hit financially by not being able to launch v. I’ll wait until it’s done,” Johnsen wrote.

Finally, Johnsen said losing the lawsuit would force the company to “significantly cut” its investment in the Starbase facility, harming not only the company’s profits but also local employees and communities. pointed out that it would be

With the dramatic and explosive launch of the first Starship, the company achieve some milestones The rocket, about 400 feet tall, flew for over three minutes. However, it lost multiple engines during launch. caused great damage Eventually it failed to reach space as the rocket began to tip over and was destroyed in mid-air on purpose.

SpaceX is working to remove damage to the launch site that cratered the ground and smashed debris into the tower, nearby tanks and other ground equipment. The launch also produced a plume of dust and sand, reportedly generating particulate matter up to six miles from the launch pad.

The test flight also caused a fire on 3.5 acres of state park land.

Planetary scientist Phil Metzger, a researcher at the University of Central Florida, studies the material in a sample of particulate matter. He told CNBC that he believes “SpaceX dodged bullets” on launch and that the amount of “concrete splatter” may have destroyed the rocket on the launch pad.

“It could have been worse than it was. I think they made the mistake of taking the risk and starting.” [concrete] On the surface, I’ll try it that way once. But it seemed to be a 70% success. They went through the tower, tested the first stage, got a lot of good data, found a problem with the staging, so hopefully they can fix it and have better results in the next test said Metzger.

Metzger did not assess the ecological impact of launch pad fragments and rocket explosions on endangered species living and migrating in the area. The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Texas Regional Office and independent researchers are among those studying the environmental impact of Starship’s test flights and explosions.

SpaceX’s motion also argued why Starship would ultimately be beneficial to scientific research. The company says the rocket’s unprecedented capabilities will “enable scientists to focus on previously impossible scientific missions and pursue the fastest and easiest ways to accomplish them, from concept to execution.” writing.

“For example, Starship’s massive capacity allows it to economically place large telescopes and heavy scientific experiments in orbit, cargo, people, and even colonies on the Moon and other planets,” SpaceX said. writes.

Read the company’s filings to establish itself as a defendant alongside the FAA.

Correction: A Starship test flight set fire to 3.5 acres of state park land. Land classification was incorrect in previous versions.