SpaceX slams proposed FAA penalties in letter of complaint to Congress

SpaceX has taken its dispute with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Capitol Hill.

On Tuesday (September 17), the FAA announced that it intends to fine SpaceX $630,000 for allegedly skirting regulations during two launches last year. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk responded to the news the same day, stating on X (formerly Twitter) that the company intends to sue the FAA “for regulatory abuse.”

Now the company has sent a letter to Congress challenging the proposed penalty and accusing the agency of acting too slowly.

The two missions listed by the FAA are PSN SATRIA, an Indonesian communications satellite that launched into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket on June 18, 2023, and EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3, another communications spacecraft that launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket on July 28 of the same year.

Both launches took place on Florida’s Space Coast — PSN SATRIA from the SpaceX launch pad at Cape Canaveral, and EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3 from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which is located next door.

Related: SpaceX launches PSN SATRIA communications satellite for Indonesia, lands rocket in sea (video)

The FAA alleges that SpaceX violated two regulations regarding the PSN SATRIA launch: The company used a new launch control room and removed the readiness survey (normally conducted two hours before launch) without waiting for approval of any of the modifications. The company submitted a request for these changes, but that request was not approved by the time of launch, according to the FAA.

For EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3, SpaceX used a new rocket fuel farm at KSC, which has not yet been greenlit, the FAA said.

SpaceX is detailing these alleged violations in a new letter the company sent to the chairman and ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

For nearly two years, SpaceX has been voicing concerns about the FAA’s inability to keep up with the commercial spaceflight industry. It’s clear that the agency lacks the resources to review licensing materials in a timely manner, but it’s also focused its limited resources on areas unrelated to… pic.twitter.com/2NJu00ZLiWSeptember 19, 2024

For example, the letter — which SpaceX also posted on X and emailed to reporters — claims that launch regulations do not require a readiness survey to be conducted two hours before liftoff. “Importantly, SpaceX conducts the survey prior to fuel loading, later during counting, consistent with operational safety,” the company wrote.

The letter goes into detail about the other two alleged violations, explaining why SpaceX doesn’t see them as such. For example, the company noted that on Aug. 20, 2023, the FAA issued a waiver allowing the use of the pre-launch fuel farm for SpaceX’s Crew-7 astronaut mission for NASA, which launched from KSC on Aug. 26 of that same year.

“The FAA statement said granting the waiver ‘would not jeopardize public health or safety, the security of property, or any national security or foreign policy interest of the United States,’” SpaceX wrote.

“Because SpaceX’s actions for the Echostar XXIV/Jupiter 3 launch and the Crew-7 launch were the same as those for the new RP-1 launch farm, it is unclear why the FAA issued a positive safety determination for the Crew-7 launch but could not do the same for the Echostar XXIV/Jupiter 3 launch,” the company added. (RP-1 is the petroleum-based propellant used by the Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.)

Overall, SpaceX wrote that the company “strongly rejects the FAA’s claim that it violated any regulations.”

The letter also criticized the FAA generally, saying the agency is stifling the growth of the U.S. launch industry.

“For more than a year, SpaceX has expressed concerns about the FAA’s inability to keep up with the commercial space industry and the needs of U.S. government agencies that rely on commercial space launches to ensure national security and advance national priorities,” concludes the document signed by David Harris, SpaceX’s vice president of legal affairs.

Part of SpaceX’s frustration stems from what it sees as overregulation of Starship, the giant new rocket the company is developing to help colonize the moon and Mars. SpaceX says it is ready to launch a fifth Starship test flight by early August, but the FAA says launch approval likely won’t come until late November.

The agency said it and its partners need more time to analyze potential environmental impacts, as well as changes SpaceX made to Starship’s configuration and mission profile after its fourth test flight in June.