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British officials told the US they are concerned about the safety of SpaceX’s plan to fly their next spacecraft rocket through British territory in the Caribbean, where the debris fell earlier this year, according to documents reviewed by Propublica.
The concerns from the UK government were detailed in a letter to American diplomats on Wednesday, and following the Federal Aviation Administration decision last week, SpaceX’s five-fold increase this year to five-fold increase, from 5 to 25.
Of particular concern for British officials is the security of the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Turks and the Caicos Islands. All of these could fall into the Starship 9 flight path.
After the January explosion, Turks and Caicos residents reported finding rocket fragments on beaches and roads. The car was also damaged by the Starship 7 accident. Seven weeks later, after receiving the FAA blessing and continuing, SpaceX launched the Starship 8 from Bocachica, Texas, but exploded after the lift-off. Air traffic in the area was decoupled, with burning stripes from falling rockets visible in the sky from the Bahamas and Florida coasts.
A British letter to Ambassador Lisa Kenna, a US State Department official, asks the US to consider changing the Starship launch site or trajectory 9.
The letter also requires the U.S. government to provide the UK with detailed information on the increasing security measures to be introduced prior to the launch of Starship 9, and to provide sufficient warnings to British territories to communicate with the public about those measures.
“We have worked closely with our US government partners on Starship Flight 9 to protect the security of our UK’s overseas territories and ensure appropriate action,” a UK government spokesman said Thursday in response to a question about ProPublica’s letter.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. But the company says it learns from mistakes. “In tests like this, success comes from what we learned, and flights today will help improve the reliability of the spacecraft,” the company said after the Starship 8 accident. “We will work with the FAA to carry out a thorough investigation and implement corrective actions to improve future spacecraft flight testing.”
Musk, who sees the rise in launches as essential for developing technology that will help astronauts on the moon and ultimately land Mars, was not diplomatic.
He downplayed the January explosion as a “barely a road crash” and appears to be venting safety concerns, saying, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
SpaceX has not announced the release date for Starship 9, but a news report says it could occur soon on May 21st. However, the final explosion is still under investigation.
In response to questions in this story, the FAA said, “We will work closely with our international partners to mitigate public safety risks for the launch of FAA licenses. We continue to come into close contact with the UK, Turks, the Caicos Islands, and other regional partners to evaluate the aerospace space flight licence amendments request.”
The FAA’s Commercial Space Transport Office, which has licenses for license launches and reentries, is undergoing leadership reforms. Three top executives, including the head of the office, announced in April that they had accepted an offer of voluntary separation.
Musk has made major efforts to reduce the federal government through the departure of thousands of federal workers. Critics say he has an inherent conflict of interest because his business is regulated by agencies such as the FAA and relies on their approval.
“If it was a conflict, I would deny myself,” Musk said in an interview in February. “All administrative authorities will comply with conflict of interest requirements,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Thursday.
Last year, the FAA proposed a $633,000 fine against SpaceX for violations related to two previous launches. Musk accused the FAA of engaging in the “law” and threatened to sue it because of “regulatory overreach.” The management case remains open.
The number of rocket launches has increased dramatically in recent years, leading pilots and scholars to warn about the increasing dangers in the air for flights that only come out for a few minutes to escape the disaster, as explosions and other obstacles are called industrial terminology.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia found an elevated risk space object posing on an aircraft. They said the chances of a year-long “uncontrolled re-entry” from a rocket are 26% in large, busy areas of airspace found near major cities in the Northeastern US, Northern Europe or Asia-Pacific region.
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A large union of plane pilots told FAA officials in January that “Starship 7 farewells raise additional concerns about whether the FAA provides adequate separation of space operations from airline flights,” according to a letter sent the day after the rocket exploded.
“We need to further evaluate the ability of FAA air traffic control to respond to unexpected rocket abnormalities in a timely manner,” said a letter from the Air Line Pilots Association, representing 79,000 pilots from 42 US and Canada Airlines. Squadrons received more information about high-risk areas prior to launch and asked that “informed and timely decisions can be made about the potential need to refusal to route aircraft under the trajectory of space vehicles.”
In response, the FAA said it would check the process to see if there is more to prepare the flight crew before launch.
Coalition President Colonel Jason Ambrosi said in a statement emailed to ProPublica that changes were needed. “The safety risks pose to the operation of commercial airlines is unacceptable.”
