SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center because it is ready for one more try and liftoff in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sept. 9, 2024.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Elon Musk said SpaceX will sue the Federal Aviation Administration for “regulatory overreach” after the agency planned to superb his defense contractor for issues with two launches last yr.
Musk’s threat of litigation, in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday, got here after the FAA announced it will levy fines amounting to $633,000 against SpaceX because the corporate had purportedly did not comply with a wide range of licensing and safety-related regulations during those launches.
The FAA said SpaceX used an “unapproved rocket propellant farm” for its EchoStar XXIV Jupiter mission in July 2023. For its launch a month earlier from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, SpaceX had modified its communication plans and used a recent and unapproved launch control room, the FAA said.
In accordance with a “notice of proposed civil penalty,” the FAA clearly informed SpaceX on June 16, 2023, two days before the launch, that the agency “wouldn’t issue a modification” to the SpaceX license. SpaceX went ahead anyway.
Musk and a spokesperson for SpaceX didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for extra information on the main focus of the corporate’s grievance.
Musk also posted comments on X, characterizing the FAA’s latest proposed civil penalties as “lawfare.”
“NASA puts their faith in @SpaceX for all astronaut transport to and from the [International Space Station], but one way or the other [FAA] leadership thinks they know higher,” he wrote in a post to his almost 200 million followers.
In one other post, Musk said, “I’m highly confident that discovery will show improper, politically-motivated behavior by the FAA.”
The FAA didn’t reply to CNBC’s request for comment.
In a recent blog post, SpaceX complained about “difficulties launch corporations face in the present regulatory environment,” specifically pertaining to “launch and reentry licensing.”
Last yr, the FAA said it will superb the corporate $175,000 for failure to submit required data ahead of a Falcon 9 launch in 2022. SpaceX had paid that superb in full by last October.
In August, the FAA needed to scuttle an approved SpaceX Starship Super Heavy environmental review because Musk’s company did not disclose that it had received multiple enforcement actions from Texas state and federal environmental authorities.
The FAA’s latest proposed civil penalties highlight the agency’s difficulties obtaining required information from SpaceX in time to review and authorize launches and reentries.
As CNBC previously reported, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found that SpaceX had repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act and did not obtain proper permits for industrial wastewater discharges at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Along with taking over the FAA and environmental regulators, Musk has clashed with the National Labor Relations Board. He filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the NLRB is unconstitutional in its structure, and that its administrative processes violate the concept of the separation of powers.
