SpaceX says that officials will keep the Starship grounded until at least November

The Federal Aviation Administration has signaled to SpaceX that it will not receive a license to launch the next Starship rocket test flight until at least the end of November, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

This is more than two months later than the mid-September deadline previously set for the FAA to decide whether to give permission to launch the next Starship flight. SpaceX says the “Super Heavy booster” and the “Starship” above for the next launch – the fifth full flight of the Starship program – are ready for launch from the first week of August.

“The flight test will include our most ambitious mission: attempting to return the Super Heavy booster to the launch pad and hold it in the air,” SpaceX said in a statement.

“Environmental regulations and discounts are well-intentioned, based on common security to help progress while preventing undue impact on the environment,” SpaceX said. “However, as the licensing process unfolds for Flight 5, we find ourselves experiencing unreasonable and exasperating delays.”

Hurry up and wait

Over the past few weeks, experts at the Starship launch facility in South Texas have continued to improve the layout of the launch pad to aid in the catch. The Super Heavy booster, which is longer and wider than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, will descend on the power of its Raptor engines, and slow upwards, allowing two wings clamped to close and hold the stainless steel reinforcement on the vessel. start the mountain.

This will be the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch a rocket in mid-air. Like the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, the Super Heavy booster is designed to be reusable. But SpaceX intends to return the booster directly to the launch site, rather than to a landing pad hundreds of miles away.

“It is understandable that such a unique operation may require additional time to review from a licensing perspective,” SpaceX said. “Unfortunately, instead of focusing resources on critical safety analysis and collaborating on smart security to protect the public and the environment, the licensing process has been repeatedly undermined by issues that from the trivial to the absurd.”

SpaceX said the delay in regulatory approvals for Starship’s next test flight was driven by “false and misleading reporting, based on false assumptions from cyber adversaries or interest groups.” special that has produced science that has been misrepresented as fact.”

SpaceX has criticized regulatory hurdles before. Last year, company officials asked the FAA to double its licensing staff to review commercial re-entry and re-entry applications. Congress approved an increase in funding for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Transportation to $42 million for fiscal year 2024. Last year, the FAA’s regional office added about 35 employees, bringing the total to workers to 158 employees, said Kelvin Coleman, the FAA’s assistant administrator for space transportation, in a Tuesday hearing before the House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee.

“In the President’s budget request for ’25, we are looking for the additional staff that we will need to continue to keep up with the demand for our products and services that we are seeing,” Coleman said.

Tuesday’s update from SpaceX was the most aggressive statement the company has released about the FAA’s slow process of launching license applications, and touched on a more serious complaint than the FAA’s lack of resources. for overseeing business area activities. The company suggested the wait for the launch of the next Starship test flight is not SpaceX’s technical readiness or that the manned FAA is burdened with regulation of the fast-growing commercial launch industry.

Instead, SpaceX wrote in a statement to the subcommittee of the House on space and aviation that the delay in the license is caused by administrative laziness, lack of transparency, bad practices, and ineffective control and repetition. As an example, SpaceX cited roadblocks with its ongoing license application to launch the fifth Starship test flight.

“This delay was not based on a new safety issue, but rather was driven by excessive environmental testing,” SpaceX said. “The four open source environment issues are indicative of the challenges startup companies face in the current regulatory environment for startups and relicensing.”