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When SpaceX’s spacecraft exploded in January and rain fell over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the rocket program and ordered an investigation. The move was the latest in a series of actions agents took against the world’s leading commercial space companies.
“Safety promotes everything you do with the FAA,” the agency’s lead lawyer said in September after proposing a $633,000 fine for alleged violations related to two previous launches. I mentioned it on the month. “If businesses fail to comply with safety requirements, it will lead to consequences.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s response was quick and caustic. He accused him of being engaged in the “law” and threatened to sue him for “overregulation.” “The basic problem is that without radical reforms in the FAA, humanity will be confined to the Earth forever!” Musk wrote in X.
Today, Mask is in a unique position to bring about that change. As one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors and the newly created Director of the Government’s Efficiency, he governs the administration’s efforts to cut costs and significantly reduce regulations.
It is unclear what changed his panel for the FAA, but current and former employees are less known to the agency that regulates the Commercial Space Transportation Agency, known as AST, where Musk is his rocket company. I am encouraged by focusing on the parts that are not. “People are nervous,” said the former employee who doesn’t want to be quoted by the name he talks about the mask.
High-tech Titan and his company were critical of the offices responsible for supplying licenses for commercial rocket launches and ensuring public safety around them. After the September fine, SpaceX sent a letter to Congress blowing up the AST. That same month, Musk called on FAA chief Mike Whitaker to step down, telling attendees at a meeting in Los Angeles.
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It appears that the FAA leadership heard him. On Trump’s inauguration day, Whitaker resigned. It was four years before the end of his term. And experts said pressure is almost certain this year as Mask pursues an aggressive launch schedule for Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built.
Whitaker did not respond to requests for comment.
Experts say that part of the AST problem is bandwidth.
The office has seen a six-fold increase in launches from 26 in 2019 to 157 last year over the past six years. SpaceX is leading the pack. At the same time, AST staffing and budgets are not continuing to walk. The agency has around 160 people (sometimes more than one per day) to oversee regular flights by private rocket companies, bringing satellites into orbit, boarding astronauts, and national security surveillance can support efforts and transport tourists to the edge of the space.
George Neild, who headed the office from 2008 to 2018, said it had “exponentially increased” to fire traffic.
With each launch, AST staff calculates the risk that the public or members who are not “involved” their property will be harmed. They will also consider whether the launch will cause environmental damage or interfere with other airspace activities such as commercial flights and ensure that the payload of the rocket has been properly approved. There are still Reentile, a licensed space vehicle in the office, but there are still far fewer.
This process takes an average of five months. “It takes a certain amount of time to work to protect the public. You want to do that right,” Neild said. He said the consequences of shrinking the office or removing it entirely could be devastating. “If the rockets off the course and no one double-checks it, and if you have a big catastrophic event, it’s going to lead to a big backlash.”
However, Mask criticizes AST for focusing on “nonsense that doesn’t affect safety.” He also emphasizes that his company must move quickly and fail to learn and improve. Within SpaceX, this approach is known as “fast iterative development.” And it’s not without risk. Dozens of planes scrambled last month to avoid falling debris when the spacecraft exploded shortly after a liftoff. Turks and residents of Caicos Caribbean islands reported finding pieces of craft on beaches and roads, and the FAA said the cars were suffering minor damage.
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SpaceX said it is reviewing the data to determine the cause, saying it “will work with the FAA to conduct a thorough investigation and implement corrective actions to improve in future spacecraft flight tests.” I pledge that.
However, Musk downplayed the explosion as “a barely bump in the road.” Additionally, he appears to be venting safety concerns, saying, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” He also said, despite the fact that the FAA investigation was still pending. He said there was nothing to suggest that the accident would drive plans to launch the next spacecraft this month.
Moriba Ya, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas, noticed that Musk’s reaction was “reckless… at least” and fired fire and smoke across the sky before people landed. Given that this was what Musk said was “at least reckless…” Around the island.
“To be able to provide government oversight for what he is trying to get permission is one of the most important conflicts of interest I’ve seen in my career, and that’s for me. It’s not inexplicable,” Jah said. About AST’s Federal Advisory Committee.
The White House did not answer questions from Propublica about Doge’s AST plans. Officials mentioned a comment from Trump last week that he said “we won’t let him go near” if a Musk dispute arises between one of his businesses and government work. Trump spokesperson Caroline Leavitt said Musk would “provide “these contracts” as necessary” as “excuses from those contracts.”
Musk and SpaceX did not respond to the question.
Jah said other people who claim less regulations such as Musk have something called “launch, baby, launch mentality” that can push the FAA office in the wrong direction .
Industry representatives and Congress members are slamming the FAA for risk aversion more than necessary, and curbing innovation.
“As countries like China are trying to leap our achievements in space, we streamline processes, issue timely approvals, minimize regulatory burdens, and innovative concepts of space It is even more important to proceed.” At the September hearing, he was the next chair of the House of Representatives’ Science and Space Technology Committee. He said he was concerned that FAA regulations could lead to missions of “unnecessarily delaying” to bring astronauts back to the moon.
Babin did not respond to requests for an interview about AST.
Trump’s new Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has already shown that his department will take a more business-friendly approach.
At a confirmation hearing last month, Sen. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz criticized the FAA’s enforcement action against SpaceX, telling Duffy, “promising to review these penalties, reducing more broadly bureaucratic overreach and launching it.” I asked if they would accelerate approval,” Duffy said. . “I promise to do a review, work with you and follow up on what’s going on with the FAA regarding the launch and launch of the space.”
Duffy has since said he has spoken to Musk about airspace reforms and is looking for doge to “help them help upgrade the aviation system.” She called Musk’s involvement in the FAA a conflict of interest.
The Ministry of Transport did not make Duffy available for interviews. The FAA did not answer written questions provided by Propublica despite multiple requests for comment.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a top Democrat on the Scientific Committee, said streamlining regulations for commercial space launches has gained bipartisan support.
Still, she said the safety of the crew and launchpad neighbors, as well as noise and pollution, must be controlled. “We need to have a traffic cop here,” she said. Especially considering the launch of space fragments and the increase in problems. “This can’t just be a Wild West, right?”
The $42 million allocated annually to AST is less than 1% of the FAA budget.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracks space launches with Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, said the office needs resources and authority to hold businesses accountable as the industry grows and makes more impact. “The government needs to play a role,” he said, “and they’ll have to sort it out.”
Last year, the Government Advisory Committee recommended that AST escape the FAA and become a standalone agency within the Department of Transportation.
Supporters argue that the move will help ASTs attract more attention and potentially gain resources. Industry advocates also say that given how young the space industry is, the FAA culture of allowing breakdowns (the bedrock of the commercial aviation industry surveillance) is culturally suitable for something bad for AST .
AST does not require that each mission be successful in the traditional sense, said Caryn Schenewerk, an industry consultant who sat on the advisory board. “They can’t,” she said. The launch of the rocket is still very new. The goal of the office is to ensure that failures don’t hurt anyone.
However, as launches become more common, there are issues like spacecraft explosions. Three years before the 2023 review, the commercial space was launched in about 20 accidents, with a term of “catastrophic explosions and other obstacles” in the industry, according to a report from the government’s Office of Accountability. I realized I had experienced this.
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The report said none of these cases resulted in death, serious injury or generally serious property damage, but there were other effects. For example, Starship’s first launch in April 2023 blew away clouds of dust and dirt that stretched miles across Texas. Debris like concrete and sh shotguns have been raining in environmentally sensitive migratory bird habitat near the company Bocachica launchpad. Residents complained, but said, “The citizens of that community don’t feel they’re being heard.” The New York Times report noted that egg yolks dyeing the ground near the bird’s nest.
In response, the mask writes to X: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from eating omelettes for a week.”
SpaceX’s plans to launch its next spacecraft this month are part of an acceleration schedule that the company is urging it to approve AST. The company launched four vehicles in 2024, and authorities said they wanted to launch 25 of them this year.
