FAA issues Starship launch license; SpaceX schedules launch for April 17th
Starship prototype #24 stacked on top of Superheavy prototype #7
FAA just sent out an email notice announcing that it has issued SpaceX the launch license for the first orbital test launch of Superheavy/Starship.
After completing an evaluation of all applicable Vehicle Operator License requirements, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a commercial Vehicle Operator License to SpaceX for launches of the Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program in Cameron County, TX.
The affected environment and environmental impacts of Starship/Super Heavy operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site had been analyzed in the 2022 Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas. Since the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), SpaceX provided the FAA with additional information regarding Starship’s planned landing, Super Heavy’s planned soft water landing, and the Launch Pad Detonation Suppression System. In accordance with FAA Order 1050.1F, Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures, the FAA prepared the Written Re-evaluation of the 2022 Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas to describe and evaluate this additional information.
Based on the Written Re-Evaluation, the FAA concluded that the issuance of a vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, that the data contained in the 2022 PEA remains substantially valid, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action. Therefore, preparation of a supplemental or new environmental document is not necessary to support the Proposed Action.
In plain English, the FAA (and other federal agencies) have finally agreed that this launch will do nothing to change the conclusions of the environmental reassessment report that was approved in June 2022. That these agencies decided apparently decided to rehash that approved environmental reassessment for a launch that was also approved in that reassessment suggests that there are individuals in these agencies salivating for an opportunity to squelch SpaceX.
SpaceX has now set April 17, 2023 as the launch date, with its live stream going live in two days. I will embed that live stream late on April 16, 2023, for those who wish to watch it here.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Starship prototype #24 stacked on top of Superheavy prototype #7
FAA just sent out an email notice announcing that it has issued SpaceX the launch license for the first orbital test launch of Superheavy/Starship.
After completing an evaluation of all applicable Vehicle Operator License requirements, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a commercial Vehicle Operator License to SpaceX for launches of the Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program in Cameron County, TX.
The affected environment and environmental impacts of Starship/Super Heavy operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site had been analyzed in the 2022 Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas. Since the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), SpaceX provided the FAA with additional information regarding Starship’s planned landing, Super Heavy’s planned soft water landing, and the Launch Pad Detonation Suppression System. In accordance with FAA Order 1050.1F, Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures, the FAA prepared the Written Re-evaluation of the 2022 Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas to describe and evaluate this additional information.
Based on the Written Re-Evaluation, the FAA concluded that the issuance of a vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, that the data contained in the 2022 PEA remains substantially valid, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action. Therefore, preparation of a supplemental or new environmental document is not necessary to support the Proposed Action.
In plain English, the FAA (and other federal agencies) have finally agreed that this launch will do nothing to change the conclusions of the environmental reassessment report that was approved in June 2022. That these agencies decided apparently decided to rehash that approved environmental reassessment for a launch that was also approved in that reassessment suggests that there are individuals in these agencies salivating for an opportunity to squelch SpaceX.
SpaceX has now set April 17, 2023 as the launch date, with its live stream going live in two days. I will embed that live stream late on April 16, 2023, for those who wish to watch it here.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Wish I could take off work and go see this. Will have to settle for the stream.
We will be there at the Rocket Ranch Outpost watching the thing from less than 5 miles a way.
We leave Sunday.
It is exciting to be able to see history being made.
I’m in shock. I can’t believe they issued the license. I didn’t think the government would let the Americans launch.
Could be the start of a new era, economical access to space with very usable payload capacity.
Even if its a total and absolute failure it is eventually a success for Space X, and the US as a nation.
If only half of the rockets fail to splash down vertically inside the first dozen Space X will be perfecting things until a total orbital flight success and 100% re-usability
Imagine it could just be fuel costs for a 200 ton cargo flight to the moon..
That these agencies decided apparently decided to rehash that approved environmental reassessment for a launch that was also approved in that reassessment suggests that there are individuals in these agencies salivating for an opportunity to squelch SpaceX.
The FAA really made a big deal about…what a big deal this was. How hard they worked!
“The award of the license concludes an extended review process. The FAA official said the agency spent more than 500 days reviewing the application, which SpaceX amended several times during that process. That is the longest the agency has spent on a single launch license application.”
https://spacenews.com/faa-issues-license-for-first-starship-integrated-test-flight/
Well, at least SpaceX has got it in hand now. Light the fires.
Go Baby Go!
“That these agencies decided apparently decided to rehash that approved environmental reassessment for a launch that was also approved in that reassessment suggests that there are individuals in these agencies salivating for an opportunity to squelch SpaceX.”
Or more likely, that people inside the FAA process were being informed that a WH with UAW allies was not favorable to top executives getting promotions after they helped Elon Musk spaceflight intentions to be fulfilled, after he has refused to hand his Tesla employees over to UAW “organizers”.
Ironically I suspect the FAA’s timing of this license may in fact help SpaceX succeed. My logic is that we all know some enviro activist will try to run to court and cause additional delays (likely subsidized by Bezos I expect too). But by issuing this license so late on a Friday directly before SpaceX’s placeholder launch date they gave SpaceX the opportunity to slot in the launch for early Monday morning. So with any luck they will get it off the ground before any court action can block them and if that flight proves reasonably successful with no environmental calamity the grounds for such action will becomes even harder to justify.
God’s Speed StarShip! : )
MDN: I think there is merit in your logic. Many people at the FAA are actually trying to help commercial space, including SpaceX. It could very well be that the whole timing of licensing and launch scheduling was a careful game to put these environmentalists off their game.
I have in fact heard people speculating that the gap between hearing that the license was ready several weeks ago, and it only actually being issued today, was that the rumors about an instant Sierra Club lawsuit got heard, and they decided to do a bit of extra due diligence to head that off at the pass. After all, it’s one thing to not go out of your way to help a company that is in a bit of political disfavor, it’s another to have your work dragged through the mud and the courts as insufficient and shoddy.
MDN and Robert … my thinking runs parallel to yours, though I still find it remarkable that the a government regulatory body would have even a few people with such a pragmatic – as opposed to the usual profit-phobic Progressive, building-code busybody – mindset.
Especially with All The Pseudodent’s “Men” (?) running the show right now
Then again, it has been said (and decried by some) that the FAA has the dual mandate of regulating and promoting air travel. The latter may account for the pragmatism.
The most publicly relentless BANANA environmentalist foe of Starbase is full of cope and seethe this weekend: “Nothing says “we’re confident in the legality and technical accuracy of this process” like issuing a government order at the last minute and after courts close so a private company can firebomb a wildlife preserve in peace.”
Instead, he’s contenting himself with an extended blog rant about how recklessly irresponsible the FAA is.
I seriously doubt that a last minute lawsuit for an injunction would have succeeded. But it’s just as well that the license got issued on a Friday evening.
Wonder when they’ll re-stack?. I checked this morning and it hadn’t happened yet.
Chopsticks swinging into action – I think.
https://www.youtube.com/live/FuZHVqieSxg?feature=share
Light That Candle.
Doubting Thomas: I’m insanely jealous. Tim Dodd says the Rocket Ranch is his favorite place to stay near Starbase TX.
Stacked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60YnbafD6vY
https://twitter.com/VickiCocks15/status/1647349225125040129?s=20
FAA probably has some good stick-and-rudder men who want progress.
Outside of passenger flight crashes….the saddest thing they ever do is to take the keys away from elderly pilots, as it were.
One of these days, Harrison Ford is going to make another goof up…and an FAA-man who probably had Han Solo as a childhood hero is going to have to call him into a room…and both will leave broken hearted.
I’m tearing up right now just thinking about it. I can’t stand driving past animal hospitals for the same reason.