There are several ways to read the announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration that it is launching a new environmental review of SpaceX’s plan to launch the world’s most powerful rocket from Florida.
The FAA said on May 10 that it plans to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for SpaceX’s proposal to launch Starships from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The FAA ordered this review after SpaceX updated the regulatory agency on Starship’s planned launch speed and the design of the ground infrastructure needed at Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), the historic launch pad once used for Apollo and Space Shuttle missions.
Double environmental reviews
At the same time, the US Space Force is monitoring a similar EIS for SpaceX’s proposal to take over a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a few miles south of LC-39A. This launch pad, designated Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37), has been available for use since the last United Launch Alliance Delta rocket lifted off from there in April.
For one thing, those environmental reviews often take some time and could cloud Elon Musk’s goal of having launch sites in Florida ready for operations by the end of 2025. “A few years wouldn’t be a surprise,” George Nield said. , a space industry consultant and former head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
Another way to look at recent FAA and Space Force announcements about upcoming environmental reviews is that SpaceX finally seems to be cementing its plans to launch Starship from Florida. Those plans have changed quite a bit over the past five years.
The environmental reviews will conclude with a decision on whether to approve SpaceX’s proposals for LC-39A and SLC-37 Starship launches. The FAA will then go through a separate licensing process similar to the framework used to license the first three Starship test launches from South Texas.
NASA has more than $4 billion in contracts with SpaceX to develop a human-rated version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon on the first two Artemis moon landing missions later this decade. To do this, SpaceX needs to organize a fuel depot in low Earth orbit to refuel the Starship lunar lander before heading to the moon. It would take a series of Starship tanker flights – perhaps 10 to 15 – to fill the depot with cryogenic fuels.
Launching that many Starships over the course of a month or two would require SpaceX to alternate between at least two launch pads. NASA and SpaceX officials say the best way to do that is by launching the Starship from one pad in Texas and another in Florida.
Earlier this week, Ars spoke with Lisa Watson-Morgan, who manages NASA’s manned lunar landing program. She was at the Kennedy Space Center this week for briefings on the Starship lander and a competing lander from Blue Origin. One topic, she said, is the FAA’s new environmental review before Starship can launch from the LC-39A.
“I would say we’re doing everything we can to get the schedule to where it needs to be, and we’re working with SpaceX to make sure that their timeline, the EIS timeline, and NASA are working in parallel as much as we can to meet our goals.” she said. “When you put it on paper as it is, it looks like there might be some tight areas, but I’d say collectively we’re working on it.”
SpaceX officially plans to hold a dress rehearsal for the Starship landing on the Moon in late 2025. It will be a full demonstration, with refueling missions, landing the unmanned Starship on the lunar surface, then liftoff from the Moon before NASA is committed to placing humans on the Starship Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for September 2026.
So you can see that schedules are already tight for the Starship lunar landing demonstration if SpaceX activates the Florida launch pads late next year.
