Mr. Whitaker is sounding more and more like a bureaucrat (like Mr Huerta)! As I have said before the FAA will just bury commercial space launches in bureaucracy. If the FAA would enact SMS themselves, it would give SMS more credibility than it has now. Kind of telling that the FAA hasn’t done so.
When it looks like the FAA is anti-space, anti-tech entrepreneur, and anti-jobs…well, yea. It is a bad look for the agency.
The possible future president is likely to side with Elon Musk.
Beyond the current political undertones, the real issue is finding a balance between allowing groundbreaking advancements and ensuring safety isn’t compromised. Both sides have valid points, but perhaps it’s time for the FAA to rethink how it regulates emerging technologies in space exploration, especially with companies like SpaceX leading the way.
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” The FAA doesn’t lead, they won’t follow… They are just in the way. How can you professionally and ethically say that your leadership process is to lead by enforcement? What would you say about a parent who’s primary leadership method is to hammer their children when they screw up? I agree with calls for the Administrator’s resignation.
The FAA is delaying a launch over relatively trivial matters, for a period somewhere between 2 months and indefinitely. This is obviously unacceptable, anti-progress, and anti-business.
The new launches are not significantly different to previously approved operations - should be a trivial task and accomplished in days, tops.
The delays are by extension delays to a program of national significance - Artemis.