The Trump administration is considering reducing the rules designed to protect the environment and the public during commercial missile launches, changes that companies such as Elon Musk SpaceX have been looking for a long time.
The project of the executive order, which is distributed among federal agencies and is viewed by PROPBLICA, manages the Transport Secretary, Shan Dafa “use all available bodies to eliminate or accelerate” environmental reviews to launch licenses. It can also demand over time that the states allow more launch and even more places to launch – known as space portions – along their coastal lines.
The order is a step towards the lapel of federal supervision, which Musk, which fought hard with the Federal Aviation Administration for his space operations, and others pushed. In recent years, commercial missile launches have grown in geometric progression.
Critics warn that such a step may have dangerous consequences.
“It would not be reasonable to be abolished the rules that are there to protect public interests and the public from harm,” said Jared Margolis, senior prosecutor of the Center for Biological Diversity, a non -profit organization that works for the protection of animals and the environment. “And this is my fear here: Are they going to change things in a way that puts people at risk that threatens habitat and wildlife?”
The White House did not answer the project questions.
“The Trump administration seeks to secure the domination in America in space without harming public safety and national security,” said the White House Socialist Press, Kush Dae. “However, if President Trump is not announced, the discussion of any potential policy changes should be considered speculation.”
The order will give Trump even more direct control over the main regulator of the space industry, turning the position of a civil servant, heading the FAA Management on Commercial Space Transport into a political meeting. The last head of the office and two other top officials recently accepted proposals for the voluntary department.
The order will also create a new advisor to the secretary of the transport in order to the pastor on the de -deregulation of the space industry.
The order project comes when SpaceX builds up its ambitious project to build a multiple deep space rocket to transfer people to Earth’s orbit, moon and eventually Mars. The rocket, called Starship, is the largest, most powerful if -well -built, which is 403 feet in height with its amplifier. The company got into some stages, but also caused problems, as three rockets launched from Texas this year exploded – a violation of air traffic and rain on the beaches and roads in the Caribbean and Gulf.
The order of the order also seeks to limit the powers of coastal officials who challenged commercial companies such as SpaceX, show documents. This can cause federal officials to interfere with the state’s efforts to comply with their environmental rules if they are contrary to the construction or operation of space ports.
Derek Brockbank, executive director of the coastal state organization, said the proposed executive order could ultimately force state commissions to prioritize the space port infrastructure over other use of the land, such as renewable energy, the development of the waterfront or the coastal restoration along the shoreline. Its non -profit organization is 34 coastal states and territories.
“This concerns that it can potentially undermine the state’s rights to determine how it wants its coast to be used, which was a very basic prerequisite for the Congress’ Coastment Law,” he said. “We should not see any president, no matter what their party comes and says,” This is what the state must prioritize or do. “
SpaceX is already sued by the California coastal commission, accusing the agency of political prejudice and interference with the company to increase the number of missile launches Falcon 9 from the Vandenberg space base. Multiple Falcon 9 is a SpaceX work horse rocket, which conducts satellites to orbit and astronauts to the International Space Station.
Changes outlined in order are greatly benefiting SpaceX, which launches much more missiles than any other US company, but will also help competitors like “Blue Jeff Bezos” and “California missile”. Companies have been pushing for supervision over the years, warning that the US is racing with China to return to the moon – hoping for resources, such as water and rare earth metals, and using it as a steps for Mars – and may lose if the rules do not allow companies to move faster, Dave Caquico, president of the Federal Federation, SpaceX, Blue Orign Lab.
“They seem to have listened to the industry because all these things are what we urged,” Kakhos said when asked about the content of the project.
Kakuzos said he sees that “some environmental review process” continues to take place. “What we talk about is the right size,” he said.
He added: “We can’t handle long -term launch delay.”
Former head of outer outer space faa said At the hearing at Congress last September that the office took an average of 151 days to issue a new license in the previous 11 years.
The launch of the commercial space in recent years has intensified – from 26 in 2019 to 157 last year. With more than 500 shared launchesBasically of Texas, Florida and California, SpaceX is responsible for the lion’s share, According to FAA.
But the company was confused with FAA, which last year offered to fined $ 633,000 for the violations associated with its two launches. Last week, FAA did not answer the question of the status of the fine.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and FAA did not respond to comment requests.
Now FAA’S Environmental Reviews Take a look at 14 types of potential impacts that include air and water quality, pollution and land use, and give details of the launches that are otherwise unavailable. They sometimes attracted great answers from the public.
When SpaceX sought to increase its Starship launch in Texas from five to 25 years, residents and government agencies have filed thousands of comments. Most of the nearly 11,400 publicly posted comments against the increase, revealed the propublica analysis. FAA still approved the increase in earlier this year. After the environmental assessment on the launch of SpaceX Starship Flight 9 from Texas FAA, the documents found that 175 airlines could be broken and will need to be closed during the launch.
In addition to seeking to reduce short environmental reviews, the executive order will open the door for the federal government to cancel the sections of the federal rule that seeks to maintain public security while launching and re -.
The rule, which is called part 450, was approved during the first term of Trump and aimed at streamlining the rules of commercial space and launch speed. But the rule soon came out of the launched companies stating that the FAA did not give enough recommendations on how to follow and took too much time to reconsider the applications.
Musk helped to charge. In September last year, he told the participants of the conference in Los -Angeles: “In fact, it is impossible to create a giant missile faster than the paper can move from one table to another.” He called on the resignation of the head of the FAA who left when Trump took office.
Other operators have expressed this disappointment, and some Congress members signal overhaul. In February, Brian Babin representative, Texas, and Zoya Lofgren, D-Calif., signed a letter requesting Government reporting to view the process of approval of commercial launches and re -entry.
In their letter, Babin and Lofgren wrote that they wanted to understand whether the rules are “effectively and effectively placed in commercial launch and repeated operations of the United States, especially since cadence and technological diversity of such operations continue to increase.
The project of the executive order sends the secretary of the transport to “reassessment, management or cancellation” part 450 to “allow a diversified set of operators to reach an increase in the cadence of commercial space and new space activity by 2030”.
The order also directs the Department of Trade to streamline the regulation of new space activities, according to which experts can include things such as mining or repair in space, which does not fall under other rules.
Brandon Roberts and Pratheek Rebala Data analysis is made.
