SpaceX letter criticizes FAA for “systemic challenges” in launch licensing

PARIS — SpaceX fired back at the Federal Aviation Administration over the agency’s proposed fines for launch license violations, blaming the FAA for dragging its heels on what the company considered minor changes.

SpaceX released Sept. 19 a letter it sent to the leadership of the House Science Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, the two committees with oversight of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST.

The four-page letter offered the company’s detailed response to the FAA’s proposed $633,000 in fines for license violations announced Sept. 17 from two launches in mid-2023. In one Falcon 9 launch, the FAA said that SpaceX used a new launch control center without approval and skipped a required poll of controllers two hours before launch. In a later Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX used a new propellant tank farm without approval from the FAA.

“With respect to these matters, it is notable that in each instance, SpaceX provided AST with sufficient notice of these relatively minor license updates, which had no bearing on public safety,” SpaceX stated in the letter.  “The fact that AST was unable to timely process these minor updates underscores systemic challenges at AST.”

For the Falcon 9 launch, SpaceX said it sent a modified communications plan to the FAA for its approval on May 2, 2023, that included the new location of the launch control center, but did not get any feedback until June 13, when the agency told SpaceX there were “too many” changes in the plan for it to review and approve it in time for the June 18 launch.

SpaceX then sent a revised plan June 15 that changed only the location, which the company argued was a “continuing accuracy update” that did not require FAA approval. The agency did not complete approval of the plan for all of SpaceX’s launch licenses until Aug. 20. SpaceX says that it did not know why the review took so long, “but the fact that the Communications Plan was approved demonstrates there was no public safety concern with moving the launch control center.”

SpaceX was also fined on the same launch for not conducting a poll at the T-2 hour mark as required by the earlier version of the communications plan. The company noted there is no requirement in regulations for such a poll and that it polls controllers later in the countdown, before the start of propellant loading.

For the Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX said the new propellant tank farm, moved to enhance public safety, had been approved by range safety authorities ahead of that launch. The FAA also granted a waiver to SpaceX to use the tank farm for a Falcon 9 launch from the same pad a month after the Falcon Heavy launch. The FAA formally granted approval “several months” later.

SpaceX added that the FAA initially did not stop launch operations for the mission using the new, unapproved tank farm, and when the FAA did step in later in the countdown, agency leadership ultimately “did not direct SpaceX to stand down or pull its license.”

The letter, signed by SpaceX vice president David Harris, also suggested that the FAA instituted the fines for political reasons. “It is notable that these violations and penalties were announced shortly after increased scrutiny on AST by Congress for its failure to reasonably and timely execute its regulatory obligations,” it stated, a reference to a Sept. 10 hearing by the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee on licensing delays.

The company added that the FAA release on the fines included a quote from the agency’s chief counsel, a political appointee, a step SpaceX called “highly irregular, and perhaps unprecedented.”

One industry source, speaking on background, was skeptical of those assertions, noting that it requires the FAA to both be prompt in responding to congressional criticism by announcing the fines while also being accused of moving too slowly on regulatory activities.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk called the fines “lawfare” and “politically motivated” in comments on social media the day they were announced, and vowed to sue the FAA. The company has yet to file a lawsuit.