SpaceX gets FAA approval to ramp up Starship launches from Texas
SpaceX received key US regulatory approval on Tuesday to increase the annual rate of Starship rocket launches from Texas and booster landings in various bodies of water, allowing Elon Musk's space company to significantly expand development of its giant Mars rocket.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), capping a years-long review, said SpaceX's proposal to increase the number of Texas Starship launches from five to 25 would not have a major impact on the surrounding environment, nor would associated booster landings or potential rocket explosions over the Gulf of Mexico and some international waters.
The agency said it determined that changing SpaceX's Starship license to support the increased rocket activity "would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment" under the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental protection law that required the FAA's review.
The regulatory green light is a boon for a massive rocket poised to play a key role in the US space programme, especially under President Donald Trump.
Musk, who spent a quarter of a billion dollars backing Trump's election campaign, has had substantial influence over the administration's space agenda to align it with his vision of sending humans to Mars, a destination for which Starship is designed.
The FAA decision comes days after SpaceX employees, contractors and other residents living near Starbase, the company's rocket campus in Texas, voted on Saturday to incorporate the area as a municipality, a move that gives SpaceX more control over the sprawling site's growth and some new powers over its launch operations.
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