FAA updates environmental review to increase Starship launches

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

The Federal Aviation Administration released on November 20 an update to its draft environmental assessment for increasing the number of annual Starship/Super Heavy launches and landings from the Starbase Test Facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The assessment examined the effects of up to 25 launches per year, as well as 25 landings of each super-heavy launch vehicle and Starship upper stages.

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

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

The draft environmental review does not make formal recommendations on the proposal to increase the number of launches. However, the audit does not appear to have identified any major issues that would have prevented this increase.

The agency said in the document that based on its assessment of the environmental impacts of increasing launch and landing speeds, “the FAA has concluded that the modification to SpaceX’s existing spacecraft operator license to operate spacecraft/heavy vehicles is consistent with previous environmental documentation, consistent with the data, contained in the 2022 PEA (Programmatic Environmental Assessment) that no significant environmental changes have occurred and that all relevant pre-approval conditions and requirements have been met or will be met in ongoing activities.”

Formal approval will not be granted until after the public comment period has been completed and comments submitted have been reviewed. The FAA has not said how long the process will take.

According to a previous environmental review, SpaceX is allowed to launch up to five Starship/Super Heavy launches per year from Boca Chica. SpaceX carried out its fourth such launch this year on November 19, although it had to abort a planned catch landing of the Super Heavy booster back to the launch pad.

In a statement after the flight, SpaceX said it canceled the attempt to hijack the booster at Starbase because of a problem with the launch tower, not the spacecraft itself, discovered as the booster was returning. “At this point, automated performance checks of critical equipment on the launch and capture tower resulted in the termination of the interception attempt,” the company said.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on social media site X, which he also owns, that due to communication problems in the tower, the takeover was aborted. “Lost connection to the launch tower computer,” he wrote on November 20. “The catch probably would have worked anyway, but we weren’t sure, so we erred on the side of caution.”

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