The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced its intention to fine SpaceX for violating the terms of the launch license. In response, Elon Musk said that he would appeal this decision in court.
On September 17, the FAA said it notified SpaceX of $633,000 in fines for violating the terms of its launch license. We are talking about two cases in June and July 2023. The first was the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the Satria-1 satellite, and the second one was the launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket with the Jupiter-3 satellite.
Regarding the Satria-1 launch, the FAA said that SpaceX requested a change to its communication plan in May 2023 to allow the use of the new Hangar X flight control center and to skip the launch controller debriefing two hours before the launch. Shortly before the scheduled launch, the FAA notified SpaceX that it would not be able to approve these changes in time to amend the license, although it didn’t specify why. SpaceX used Hangar X and skipped the controller survey anyway. The launch ended in success.
A month later, SpaceX was preparing to send Falcon Heavy into space with the Jupiter-3 satellite. Nine days before the launch, the company requested an amendment to its launch license to allow the use of a new rocket fuel storage facility. Two days before the scheduled launch, the FAA notified SpaceX that it wouldn’t be able to make the license changes in time. Despite this, the company used the new storage facility anyway. This mission also went well.
Under the rules, SpaceX has 30 days in which it can participate in an “informal conference” with FAA lawyers and present information explaining the incident. However, Elon Musk has already announced his intention to go to court and accused the FAA of declaring legal war on SpaceX.
The billionaire, who openly supports Donald Trump, also said the current problems were politically motivated and pointed out that the FAA had not handed Boeing any fines for the troubled Starliner spacecraft. The FAA answered that NASA was responsible for the safety of manned commercial missions like the Starliner flight.
This is not the first conflict between the FAA and SpaceX. In February 2023, the department issued a fine of 175,000 dollars to the company. SpaceX is also facing fines from the Environmental Protection Agency for releasing fresh water from the Starship launch pad’s cooling system, and with a separate, earlier incident in which the company spilled liquid oxygen into protected wetlands near the Starbase spaceport.
Recall, recently Elon Musk said that humanity would never colonize Mars if Donald Trump lost.
According to Spacenews
