An aerial view of Starship prototypes stacked on super-heavy boosters at the company’s Starbase facility outside Brownsville, Texas.
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX joins Federal Aviation Administration as co-defendant to fight lawsuit filed by environmental groups after first test flight of Starship, world’s largest rocket, ended last month in mid-flight explosion I plan to.
and Claim submitted In court Friday, SpaceX asked federal judge Carl Nichols to allow the company to join the FAA as a defendant against an environmental and cultural heritage nonprofit that sued the aerospace regulator earlier 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.
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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.”
SpaceX Crisis
SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Brett Johnsen has filed a declaration with allegations further detailing the company’s potential harm if it loses the lawsuit. In his statement, Johnsen said that since July 2014, SpaceX has “invested more than $3 billion” in developing the Starbase facility and Starship system.
This year alone, the company According to Musk’s comments after the first full-stack launch trial last month, Starship plans to spend about $2 billion in its development.
Johnsen also highlighted the contract pipeline SpaceX is building for future Starship missions.
SpaceX now has a massive NASA contract worth up to $4.2 billion to use rockets to land astronauts on the moon. In addition, the company has signed a commercial customer agreement that includes three separate missions for high net worth individuals Jared Isaacman, Yusaku Maezawa and Dennis Tito, which Johnsen says is “a hundred million dollars at the moment. He also signed a Starship contract that said, “It’s worth it.”
Starship is also important to the future of the company’s Starlink satellite Internet business, which has over 1.5 million customers. “SpaceX has invested billions of dollars in Starlink so far,” Johnsen said.
Musk has previously emphasized the interdependence of the two businesses, and Johnsen added that Starship flights are necessary for SpaceX to launch second-generation (“V2”) Starlink satellites. repeated.
“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
Fallout on first launch
After the SpaceX Starship takes off for flight testing from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on April 20, debris scatters the launch pad and damaged tank (rear right) on April 22, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
With the dramatic and explosive launch of the first Starship, the company The nearly 400-foot-tall rocket flew for more than three minutes and achieved several milestones. However, it ultimately failed to reach space as it lost multiple engines during launch, severely damaged ground infrastructure, and was deliberately destroyed in mid-air as the rocket began to tip over.
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.
