The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has completed the environmental assessment for the impact of the increased number of Starship launches from Boca Chica, Texas, up to 25 launches a year.
What Happened: Members of the public can comment on the assessment till Jan. 17, 2025.
Starship is presently cleared for 5 Starship launches in a year. As per the FAA’s assessment, the increase in launch cadence is not expected to result in any additional impact.
“Based on the above review… the FAA has concluded that the modification of SpaceX's existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, consistent with the data contained in the 2022 PEA (Programmatic Environmental Assessment), that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action,” the FAA said.
Formal approval will come after the FAA takes in comments and reviews them. It is unclear how long it would take.
Why It Matters: Starship is currently in the testing and development phase.
The company has conducted six test flights of the vehicle thus far but without a payload. The last flight test took place earlier in November and NASA is looking forward to taking humans back to the surface of the Moon after a gap of over 50 years with the help of a custom version of Starship.
“…I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Baron Investment Conference in New York earlier this month.
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Photo courtesy: SpaceX
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