FAA/Fish & Wildlife Service
To launch Starship, SpaceX requires approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. With Elon Musk’s space company looking to launch its Falcon 9 and Starship rockets at an ever-quickening pace, the F.A.A. has been hard-pressed to keep up.
SpaceX says this fifth test flight of Starship had been delayed for months by unnecessary paperwork and regulatory sluggishness. The F.A.A. says it is working to protect public safety. At one point, the agency said it wouldn’t approve the flight until late November, with a sign-off from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on environmental issues at the launch site in Texas being a factor in the delay.
There has been widespread evidence of environmental consequences to the region, as detailed in a New York Times investigation in July.
The primary role of the F.A.A. for launches and re-entries is to prevent property damage or injury to a member of the public.
After weeks of pressure by Mr. Musk on the agency to speed up its latest review, approval came Saturday for the flight on Sunday. But some environmental caveats were attached.
The report in The Times examined, in part, damage that a Starship launch in June caused to the fragile migratory bird habitat surrounding the launch site, including destroying eggs in nearby nests.
After the story was published, Mr. Musk made fun of the findings. “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week,” he wrote in a social media post.
In issuing the new launch license, the F.A.A. said SpaceX had agreed to conduct studies, beginning with this launch, of the plume of pea-sized gravel the rocket sends out into the adjacent state park “ to determine the distance of the gravel plume and methods for protecting nests during launch events.”
SpaceX will also use drones with infrared cameras — which can detect animal nesting sites — during launches, and it will deploy environmental engineers before and after the launches to look for any harm to these birds and their nests.
The company may also be asked, if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves, to install temporary shelters to protect the nests during the launches, the F.A.A. environmental report released on Saturday said. |
