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FAA administrator claims SpaceX wasn’t following regulations; SpaceX says that’s false

FAA administrator Mike Whitaker today said this to SpaceX:
FAA administrator Mike Whitaker today to SpaceX:
“Nice company you have there. Shame if something
happened to it.”

In a hearing today before the House transportation committee, the FAA administrator Mike Whitaker claimed repeatedly that the red tape his agency has imposed on SpaceX, as well as the fines it recently imposed on the company, were due to safety concerns as well as SpaceX not following the regulations and even launching without a license.

Mike Whitaker, the administrator of the FAA, told lawmakers on the House Transportation Committee that his decision to delay SpaceX’s launch for a few months is grounded in safety, and defended the $633,000 fine his agency has proposed against SpaceX as the “only tool” the FAA has to ensure that Musk’s company follows the rules.

… [Kevin Kiley (R-California)] argued those reviews don’t have anything to do with safety, prompting Whitaker to shoot back: “I think the sonic boom analysis [related to returning Superheavy back to Boca Chica] is a safety related incident. I think the two month delay is necessary to comply with the launch requirements, and I think that’s an important part of safety culture.”

When Kiley asked what can be done to move the launch up, Whitaker said, “complying with regulations would be the best path.”

SpaceX immediately responded with a detailed letter, published on X, stating in summary as follows:

FAA Administrator Whitaker made several incorrect statements today regarding SpaceX. In fact, every statement he made was incorrect.

The letter then detailed very carefully the falseness of each of Whitaker’s claims. You can read images of the letter here and here. The company noted:

It is deeply concerning that the administrator does not appear to have accurate information immediately available to him with respect to SpaceX licensing matters.

Based on SpaceX’s detailed response, it appears its lawyers are extremely confident it has a very good legal position, and will win in court. Moreover, the politics strongly argue in favor of fighting now. Though such a fight might delay further Superheavy/Starship test launches in the near term, in the long run a victory has a good chance of cleaning up the red tape for good, so that future work will proceed without this harassment.

Whitaker’s testimony also suggests strongly that he — a political appointee by the Biden administration –is likely the source of many of the recent delays and increased red tape that SpaceX has been forced to endure. He clearly thinks he knows better than SpaceX on these technical areas, even though his education and work history has never had anything to do with building rockets.

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21 comments

  • Steve Richter

    Ship 30 is currently stacked on the launch pad under booster 12. Any chance there will be a flight 5 soon, flying under the approved flight 4 profile?
    https://youtu.be/NoYuXCDWSq8?si=Oi6c2n-iyueL0WTW

  • John

    “He clearly thinks he knows better than SpaceX on these technical areas, even though his education and work history has never had anything to do with building rockets.”

    I disagree, this is not technical or safety related, and that person knows it.

    Whitaker is probably so deranged he can only see his psychotic truths over any facts. Saving democracy, hitler, racism, and misinformation; that is what this hero is doing.

  • Alex Andrite

    Dear FAA admin –
    WE don’t need no stinkin BAHDJUS.

    Turn us lose, and we will make Space Travel Great Again. !

    (subject to E.M.’s approval)

    A.

  • James Street

    You fought in the meme wars?
    https://t.ly/tKKzb
    (language)

  • Steve Richter

    Kind of scary to me how uninformed the space public is on this FAA/SpaceX debate. When I sample the comments on YouTube and Twitter few discuss the fact that SpaceX is approved to send Starship from Boca into orbit and land in the Indian ocean. That is hardly the stuff of the assertion of many of the comments, that SpaceX is deliberately being blocked by the FAA.

    And yeah, the FAA blocking the tower landing out of concern for the sonic boom makes no sense either. After all, the best way to measure the effect of the boom is to do just that. Allow the tower landings and tally the wildlife carnage.

    The ostensible FAA concerns are water deluge, sonic boom and public safety from a returning booster RUD. The water thing can’t be a show stopper since the water is used during the already approved launch. The sonic boom could be a problem, but the best way to know if it is is to observe the effects in real time. And SpaceX can answer public safety concerns by proceeding with the FAA approved flight 5 and executing a flawless booster landing in the Gulf.

  • Richard M

    Allow the tower landings and tally the wildlife carnage.

    There’s been so much wildlife carnage already at Boca Chica, after all, LOL

    And SpaceX can answer public safety concerns by proceeding with the FAA approved flight 5 and executing a flawless booster landing in the Gulf.

    The loss of one raptor notwithstanding, I think IFT-4 demonstrated the ability of the booster to make a precision landing. I don’t think that’s the concern at this point. The question is what would be gained by a repeat of IFT-4 that could justify the expenditure of the resources and time involved (which are far from insignificant).

  • Steve Richter

    “… The question is what would be gained by a repeat of IFT-4 that could justify the expenditure of the resources and time involved (which are far from insignificant). …”

    What would be gained is twofold. FAA approval for launch tower landing and critical testing of Starship. Is survival of Starship during reentry a given? The X-37B survives reentry. The space shuttle did not. Will Starship come back intact? I am under the impression that SpaceX has a lot of work to do before Starship is operational. Conducting a test flight now is like an obvious thing for SpaceX to do.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Steve Richter,

    Ship 30 is currently stacked on the launch pad under booster 12.

    Seems that what the FAA ought to really be looking into is how the heck that happened. :)

    Richard M,

    Carnage alright. There’s an obvious epidemic of avian obesity going on at Starbase from the ubiquitous native birds eating all the french fries and other leavings discarded by the ever-growing Starbase workforce. Loud noises don’t bother the wildlife. Sonic booms will just be interpreted as the latest type of dinner bell by our teeming furry and feathered friends at the Starbase sandspit. Or perhaps a hint by local crustacean “gangs” to swarm again as that always seems to be good for a viral video or two on social media. Arthropods gotta represent too.

    As for the FAA, the time to confront a problem is when it first arises. The hirelings of the – one devoutly hopes – soon-to-be-ended Biden regime are, in essence, asserting that future American technological progress will not be allowed to proceed at a pace faster than bureaucracy. That needs to be slapped down good and hard and right now.

  • Grady

    Get the heck out of here with this noise:

    “Whitaker is a private pilot, holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and French from the University of Louisville and a juris doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center,”

  • Chris

    The scary thing is: when the Administrator says “it’s the only tool we have”, he’s asking/demanding more power. This includes, in my mind, the ability to raid SpaceX with physical force.

  • Tregonsee314

    Should a miracle occur and we get a change of administration Mr. Whitaker should be one of the first to get his walking papers say 12:01 PM 01/20/2025. I’m certain his dual degree in Polisci and French will be in great demand in the Space and Aviation sector. Perhaps he could apply to SpaceX for employment, I’m sure they need a translator of French literature somewhere.

  • Robert Arvanitis

    Just a little longer.
    Inauguration day is January 20, 2025. Pull a Musk: Cut 80% of all govt. agencies; restore the few that prove worthwhile.
    Turn over the top three levels of any agencies that remain.
    Then on January 21st….

  • Chuck

    I completely agree that NOW is the time for the legal fight. SpaceX lawyers have the Chevron decision as a wonderful hammer, and pray they can get a Texas court to use it vigorously against all of the dreamed-up regulations the FAA has spouted in recent years as a part of their space turf war with agencies.

  • SpaceX tactics on this remind me of selection of flies for fly fishing. Two basic types of flies: food and attractants.

    The food type of flies match whatever it is the fish are eating when you are chasing them. The better you match the food (size, shape, color, movement thru the water, action, etc), the more likely the fish is to hit the fly and try to eat.

    Second type are attractants, which also trigger a strike. Lots of reasons fish will strike something when they aren’t hungry. Problem is the fish won’t tell you, but it happens often enough that you can figure it out over time. Protection of a nest from predators (salmon and sticklebacks) is one example.

    Appears to me that SpaceX loud public response to FAA intransigence / speed-bumpery over the last month or so was intended to smoke out a public response from someone high in the FAA hierarchy. With this testimony, appears they were successful, giving SpaceX an opening in federal court for a TRO aimed at the FAA. Cheers –

  • pzatchok

    I want to know what evidence this guy was using to come to his conclusions.

    Did he only use outside evidence sent to him to delay the flights or did he send his own people out to do investigations?

  • Mark Sizer

    did he send his own people out to do investigations?
    They’re walking to Boca Chica from DC and back. Why did you think it’s taking so long?

  • john hare

    One could wonder if Whitaker is unpopular enough in his own agency that his people set him up with SpaceX as the trigger man. Most people in and out of the agency seem to be aware that things have to change. It seems possible that not only was he hot aware, but also unaware that his attitude made him unpopular to a wide circle of people. He might become the excuse and fall guy to get things squared away. Speculation.

  • Edward

    Steve Richter wrote: “And SpaceX can answer public safety concerns by proceeding with the FAA approved flight 5 and executing a flawless booster landing in the Gulf.

    and:

    What would be gained is twofold. FAA approval for launch tower landing and critical testing of Starship.

    Test flight 4 already accomplished a flawless booster landing. The FAA is not approving launch tower landing even with the success of Super Heavy on test flight 4, so another success would not gain FAA approval, either.

    Since the public is well clear of the landing zone, there is no public safety concern — that is a red herring. Sonic booms are not a new phenomenon. Indeed, Falcon Heavy launches come with a pair of sonic booms during side-booster return to launch site. A sonic boom could be loud and scary, but the noise of launch is worse, and an exploding Starship at launch would be even worse than that. The sonic boom concern is another red herring. The water deluge merely adds more water to a swamp, so the deluge is a third red herring.

    Testing of Starship can also be accomplished with the same test launch as a test of a tower landing, so why would SpaceX want to waste a launch only to have to wait yet another six months before it can move ahead in Starship’s development? The problem is that the FAA is now citing minor changes as reasons for long delays. It is also citing approved ground hardware as reasons to fine SpaceX. If the company allows government to run roughshod over it now, then government will always do so. We need this regulatory overreach to end now, and we need Part 450 to be implemented as intended: not as a further impediment but as a streamlined process.
    ____________
    FAA administrator Mike Whitaker is projecting his own stupidity onto rocket scientists, showing just how stupid he really is. Lying to Congress shows that Whitaker also believes them to be stupid. Everyone knows that the FAA is following Obama’s instructions to punish the Democratic Party’s enemies and reward its friends, but Democrats think that this is the whole purpose of government. Democrats will do anything in order to get their way. For them the end justifies the means, allowing for lying to Congress and the public; cheating on elections; or assassinating opposition candidates, legislators (e.g. at baseball practice), or Supreme Court Justices (e.g. Chuck Schumer vs. Brett Kavanaugh) and the attempted assassination. Choosing winners and losers among America’s commerce is outside the scope of the FAA’s responsibilities and doing so is unprofessional.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA7DLwZtYtA (13 minutes, Ellie in Space: “Elon Musk calls on FAA chief to resign after telling lies, according to SpaceX”)

  • Jeff Wright

    To Mr. Eagleson…Starship stacked under SuperHeavy…pretty funny…almost as good as folks talking about casualties in Iraq from IUDs.

    Those Dalkon Shields were murder–like butterfly mines I suppose.

    And yet…

    The wreckage of SuperHeavy showed the outer ring of engines almost intact.

    Part of me wonders if you could slid out ta kage..cargo…or even a second stage with annular platforms.

  • Charles Lurio

    Bob, I was convinced by the SpaceX sept.10 release that. all this crap being thrown at the company is, indeed, political revenge, What’s happened since then just pounds in the point

    Whittaker is completely. insufferable, a smarmy self-righteous jackass. (Please, don’t edit out the ‘colorful’ language.) I hope he’s getting a very good bonus for lying his head off

    And this is the latest insanity: Seems that FAA now wants SpaceX to do an environmental hazard evaaluation of the new tiles, Because, you know, they could fall on someone’s head, And the material they’re made of could be dangerous.

    I don’t know how anyone could see that last one as anything but harassment by the administration. They’ve been going fishing in the past…reminds me of that famous comment by Beria,”you show me the man, I’ll show you the crime”

  • James Street

    Elon Musk’s 9/25 Tweet on Mike Whitaker.

    Elon Musk @elonmusk
    He needs to resign
    9:25 AM · Sep 25, 2024
    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1838978117072805999

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