All this talk about “FAA BAD” has got me thinking… If Starship “Kerbaled” and smashed into the hotel at SPI on the first flight, the FAA would be murdered for allowing the flight to happen. If NASA is “licensing” Starship, the same. I’ve read much of the regulations – I’m not a lawyer, I don’t work for a launch provider. But from my understanding, the regulations require commercial space companies to think through the safety of their vehicle and operations; much of the work is done by the companies themselves and simply approved by the FAA. It’s a system of checks and balances that lies firmly on the launch provider to do their due diligence.
We speak so much of mishap investigations (especially recently), and I see “Team Space” on X blaming the FAA for those mishap investigations, but it wasn’t the FAA that launched a vehicle that had a critical system fail – it was the launch provider. If American Airlines files plans to go from Boston to LA at 3:00PM this Friday, and instead of flying from Boston to LA they go to Shanghai and leave the passengers there – there’s going to be an investigation.
If a SpaceX second stage lands outside of the ‘safety zones’ that are set before the launch, there’s going to be an investigation. In fact, when it happened on the CREW-9 mission, SpaceX said it would investigate, before the FAA even said it was going to require one. SpaceX knew that it was outside of the mission plan and that was cause for mishap investigation. Imagine if that second stage landed even further outside of the planned area, and landed on Disney World.
The regulations in place keep everyone honest – the government AND the launch provider. It provides a way of making sure that rockets falling out of the sky don’t land on populated villages and kill innocent people. It makes sure there are safety checks in place.
The FAA is slow. All government is slow. The regulations, however, do give the FAA the time they need to provide the proper checks on the work that a launch provider does as part of a mission plan, a mishap investigation, etc. Is it absolutely outrageous that the FAA requires 60 days to doublecheck the launch provider’s work when a change is made to the mission plan? Maybe. But that’s the system in place. Does regulation slow progress? Maybe. But that’s the system in place to protect human life, and the earth. With every action we’ve seen from the FAA, there’s always an explanation with references to the specific pieces of regulation that were violated. Are those regulations just? Are those timelines set out in the regulations for when a launch provider needs to provide notice to the FAA of changes to mission plans too far out? Maybe. But those are the regulations in place.
Again, I’m not an insider, and I don’t know what happened prior, but in each Starship mishap investigations, the FAA responded within about 4-5 weeks following the filing of the mishap report from SpaceX. The majority of the time between flights has been waiting for the mishap report to be filed by SpaceX.
Every day, normal humans, not just rocket scientists need to work within the regulations and circumstances they are given. If your passport expires, and you need to renew it to travel, but you wait until the last minute to renew – You’re probably not getting on that plane. You’re waiting the 2 months to get your renewal passport. In spaceflight, last minute changes could mean important safety checks are missed.
Would NASA be able to “license” Starship, or Falcon 9, or Starliner, or New Glenn better and faster than the FAA? I doubt it, because when the mission for safety is put on NASA – they too will provide the same checks and balances that the FAA does. Has a NASA mission ever run on time (or on budget)?
I see calls for a new agency to be formed to regulate commercial space. Do we think that new agency would just rubber stamp every proposed mission that a launch provider puts before them? Do we think that it will be faster? I doubt it. No agency, no organization, no company wants to be liable for the loss of life or the destruction of property. Have you seen how fast congress works these days? There isn’t any way a new agency will be proposed, funded, formed and operational in a timely manner.
I’m so pro-SpaceX. Everything they do gives me hope for the future of humanity. But there are rules we must all play the game of life by – even when trying to make life multi-planetary.
Can the FAA do better? Yes.
Can the launch providers do better? Yes.
/KMR