FAA updates environmental review for increased Starship launches

BERLIN — An environmental review brings SpaceX one step closer to increasing the launch rate of its Starship vehicle from Texas.

The Federal Aviation Administration released Nov. 20 an updated version of a draft environmental assessment for an increase in the number of annual launches and landings of Starship/Super Heavy from its Starbase test site at Boca Chica, Texas. The assessment examined the impacts of up to 25 launches a year, along with 25 landings each of the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stages.

The release of the updated draft begins a public comment period that runs through Jan. 17. The FAA will hold five public meetings to gather input, four in-person events in Texas in early January and one online event Jan. 13.

The agency had planned public hearings on an earlier version of the draft in August, but postponed the hearings. “The FAA is seeking additional information from SpaceX before rescheduling the public meetings,” the FAA said at the time, but did not elaborate.

The draft environmental assessment does not provide a formal recommendation on the proposal to increase the number of launches. However, the review did not appear to find any serious issues that would prevent that increase.

The agency stated in the document that based on its assessment of environmental impacts of the increased launch and landing rate, “the FAA has concluded that the modification of SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, consistent with the data contained in the 2022 PEA [Programmatic Environmental Assessment], 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.”

A formal approval will only come after the conclusion of the public comment period and review of the comments submitted. The FAA has not stated how long that process will take.

Under an earlier environmental review, SpaceX is allowed to perform up to five launches of Starship/Super Heavy a year from Boca Chica. SpaceX performed the fourth such launch this year Nov. 19, although it had to abort the planned “catch” landing of the Super Heavy booster back at the launch site.

In a post-flight statement, SpaceX said that it called off the booster catch attempt back at Starbase because of an issue with the launch tower, not the vehicle itself, discovered as the booster was making its way back. “During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt,” the company stated.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on X, the social media site he also owns, that a communications issue with the tower caused the catch abort. “Lost comms to the launch tower computer,” he posted Nov. 20. “Catch would probably still have worked, but we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of caution.”

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