SpaceX is joining the FAA’s side in environmental Starship lawsuit

In a predictable yet a rather change of events for the company, SpaceX is joining the FAA’s side as a co-defendant on the lawsuit against the license granting Starship’s launch from South Texas. If successful, the case could delay the development of Starship back years.

SpaceX’s investment in Starbase at risk

SpaceX has several reasons why in the document brought public by CNBC for why the company should be allowed to join in as a defendant. First, the FAA is a government agency and doesn’t represent the same interests as a private company like SpaceX. The FAA could revert the decision on Starship launching from Boca Chica, Texas, and would not feel the same financial setback as SpaceX, who has already “invested more than $3 billion into developing” the system.

Second, SpaceX stated the precedent that companies could join a case when their company could be affected by the suit. SpaceX also said neither the FAA nor the plaintiff, a group of environmentalist and cultural heritage groups, have objected to tagging on.

With $3 billion already spent and SpaceX stating they plan to spend another $2 billion this year on Starship, it’s unsurprising that Elon Musk’s company wants to help defend the FAA’s decision.

That decision in question is that the FAA did not decide to do a formal environmental impact statement for SpaceX to launch its Starship launch vehicle from Boca Chica. The groups claim various environmental and cultural concerns of the launches and want at the least an EIS completed – which could take years.

After a year of delays waiting for the FAA’s decision, SpaceX completed its first test launch on April 20. Unfortunately, while the launch exceeded all expectations by Musk, the flight had to be terminated after the vehicle lost control just before stage separation.

The launch caused extensive damage to the orbital launch mount and the surrounding area. However, much of that damage has since been repaired, and the company is already working towards the next test launch.

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NASA has serious skin in the game

SpaceX’s concern for the lawsuit is easy to see as the company spent a lot of time, energy, and capital developing Starbase. Again, a place very unique for this sort of work, and it would be difficult for SpaceX to move somewhere else to do the same development. In addition, an EIS could delay Starship by several years, something SpaceX by itself could maybe survive, but NASA cannot wait that long.

NASA took a risk when selecting SpaceX’s Starship in 2021 as the lunar landing for Artemis 3, the first lunar landing by humans since the Apollo Program. However, it’s not like NASA really had a choice either. The Blue Origin-led proposal was outside NASA’s budget constraints, and Dynamic’s proposal had many design and development issues.

Even a year delay in Starship’s development could jeopardize Artemis 3’s 2025 landing date. Anything more than that would be a costly delay for sure.

What can NASA do? Well, there’s been some talk of NASA stepping in to claim Starship’s development is of national importance. Not something I’ve seen in my time covering the space industry, but there is precedent for the Department of Defense to step in during legal disputes concerning national security. So I’m sure NASA can do something similar.

NASA could also dump cash into Blue Origin, whose proposal was selected to be the lander for Artemis 5. NASA making a switch to get Blue Moon (the lander’s name being developed by many big aerospace companies and lead by Blue Origin) ready in two and a half years.

That would require a massive increase to NASA’s budget, I’m sure we can get Republicans on board when we mention the environmentalist. Then it would be a big ask for Blue Origin, a new company to the world of big NASA contracts.

Either way, NASA loses if SpaceX’s Starship launch license is put on hold or canceled because of this lawsuit. And would probably be the biggest loser of the three entities.