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Over the past decade SpaceX's launch site on South Texas's Gulf Coast has developed from a novelty to arguably the epicenter of U.S. space operations, with Falcon rockets carrying satellites and other equipment to space launching two or three times a week.
Now, the site stands to get a lot busier. Elon Musk's space company is seeking to step up launches of its far larger Starship rocket from five to 25 times a year to meet its goal of taking astronauts back to the moon and eventually Mars.
But Musk's success has brought increasing scrutiny from federal regulators, who are weighing the risk SpaceX and other rapidly advancing commercial space operations pose to the environment and the general public against the desire to return the U.S. space program to its past glory.
"These are not only the largest rockets known to mankind but they tend to explode," said Jared Margolis, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, part a coalition of environmental groups suing the Federal Aviation Administration to block SpaceX launches. "And they're launching next to a very environmentally sensitive area with no buffer around the launch site."
The FAA, which licenses commercial space flight, was supposed to clear SpaceX for its fifth test launch of its Starship rocket this month, but delayed another two months while it conducts further environmental reviews, according to SpaceX. The agency also cancelled a series of public meetings in Port Isabel that would have allowed residents to weigh in on the company's plans to ramp up Starship launches.
In a hearing in the House Committee on Science Space and Technology last week, Kevin Coleman, associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, testified the delays were caused by changes SpaceX's own changes to its mission and equipment.
"It is the company that is pushing mission-by-mission approvals. That's what the pace is about," he said.
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