The FAA announced yesterday (September 17) it has proposed fining SpaceX $633,000 for allegedly failing to adhere to licensing requirements. Elon Musk responded on X (formerly Twitter) that he plans to push back in court. “SpaceX will be filing suit against the FAA for regulatory overreach,” he wrote. Musk’s company is also on the FAA carpet for failing to get approvals for changes to two rocket launches last year, using an unapproved rocket propellent farm prior to a July 2023 launch.
I’m wonder how often musk regrets not positioning the launch facilities a couple miles farther south. I’m sure the MX equivalent of the FAA would be much more amenable
Moving launch facilities south of the border brings export control laws in to play. He would trade-off the FAA oversight for the State and Commerce Departments and their export licensing requirements. Not a good trade in my opinion.
Let’s agree that the FAA’s experience in safety regulation is valuable, but are its processes too slow to keep up with the fast-paced and unique needs of the commercial space industry? Oi!
Maybe the FAA needs a specialized space-focused regulatory body to better handle the challenges of modern space exploration!
WOW! FAA is so brave in coming after Musk about “irregularities”! I am impressed! Should’ve used this “bravery” to go After Boeing. Oh, my bad! They can’t! They are involved to the teeth.
The FAA is desperately trying to prove that it should have a role in regulating space operations. However, very few FAA employees have any knowledge or experience concerning this complex field. Musk is spending billions so that humans can move out into the Solar System. Form a new agency to regulate operations above the stratosphere and get the FAA off his back!
Another case of a broken branch of government. SpaceX is the future and regulators just can’t grasp that. Yet, NASA, FAA and BOEING are all in the same closed clique and spending literally billions of dollas trying save face. SpaceX is unfairly caving into special interest groups. I hope Elon can bend them over with a massive lawsuit and allow them a choice… Remain in the US or move all of his operations out of the US and let the NASA cronies continue to flounder around wasting taxpayers money.
How does moving a tank farm affect safety? Maybe OSHA would care, but the safety the FAA should care about is that of joe-public on the ground during the launch and lower altitude flight?
i HOPE Musk does sue, wins and shows what a bunch of paper pushing bureaucratic monkeys they are . Maybe a wake up call we need as a people and a nation. The system of unelected idiots making laws and rules never voted on or approved by our regulatory system, (the 3 branches of legal government), The FAA folks did not say space x did something unsafe, They just changed some thing or did not fill out a “required” form like used control room #3 instead of control room used listed on some form oops ! un safe only for the desk jokey that only knows rules and regs but has no idea what the folks at Space X actually do, probably has a cow if wife brings home Extra brand detergent when the shopping list clearly says Tide!!
The departments of our government have become bloated with rules desk jockey bureaucrats and persons with no idea what they are regulating, FAA should stick to in atmosphere issues and have no authority beyond itr, and when a rocket gets launched all they get is a notification the launch corridor is in use keep your traffic clear! How would it be in a couple hundred years , " well folks we will launch from space port Mars ,Just as soon as the FAA message we are allowed comes in from earth1, It is due here anytime in the next 30 days, please stay seated"!!
It does not work that way. Any American launch company requires FAA approval for launches, even outside of the US. Rockeklab requires FAA approval for launches in NZ, for example.
The FAA’s experience in safety regulation is valuable, but its processes are too slow to keep up with the average paced and unique needs of the aerospace industry. Which is probably why we are still operating on 20th century technologies.
No one private individual has, or should have, as much economic, political, and influential authority as Elon Musk has. He needs to be regulated right back to his proper place, as a complier with the rule of law and leave the making of that law to our elected representatives and the agencies delegated to administer and enforce it. There’s a valid complaint that government agencies are hidebound and slow to change, and thats because bureaucrats tend to settle into a comfortable stasis of “SOSDD”. This could be corrected by requiring them to deploy on “TAD” out in the field, working “in the trenches” of the industry (but not the specific company) they regulate (all of you veterans out there know what that means). They would be “on loan” to the company they are assigned to work for, and subject to that company’s location, work rules, and pay scales, while on unpaid leave from the government and NOT accruing seniority. This should be a condition of all federal employment, and anybody already onboard who objects to this change should be shown the door.
You’ve hit the nail squarely on the head. The U. S. Government placed a target on Musk and unleashed every agency to attack him the minute he began to expose their corrupt use of Twitter under the previous ownership and they will not stop…… not even long enough for him to bail out Boeing and the FAA from their most recent failure. Sigh.