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SpaceX has officially joined a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by nonprofit organizations that accuse the regulatory body of inadequately analyzing the impact of Starship on the environment surrounding the launch pad. SpaceX conducted the first Starship rocket test in April, which saw damage to the launch site and the destruction of the rocket in mid air leading to debris falling in the surrounding area. While the suit had only listed the FAA as a defendant, SpaceX had requested the court to act as a defendant since it has significant financial and commercial interests linked to the Starship rocket. In their suit, the plaintiffs had asked the court to cancel SpaceX's environmental approval for the Boca Chica launch site and also cancel SpaceX's launch license.

SpaceX Denies Most Allegations In Lawsuit Against FAA Which Claims Starship Launch And Tests Significantly Impacted The Environment

The lawsuit against the FAA was filed soon after SpaceX's April attempt and SpaceX had filed a motion to intervene roughly three weeks later. In its application to the District Court of the District of Columbia, the firm had requested that it be made a defendant in the lawsuit since the challenge to the Starship launch and license program would harm its interests if it were not allowed to intervene. In response, while the plaintiffs did not object to SpaceX being made a defendant, they did share some precedents arguing that the FAA alone was adequate as a defendant to the lawsuit.

Following its application, SpaceX also filed its response to the lawsuit before the court approved its application for intervention. This response addressed the one-hundred-plus allegations in the lawsuit, and it proved to be timely as the court allowed SpaceX to become a defendant earlier today.

SpaceX's Starship rocket blasts off from the launch pad in April. Image: SpaceX

The bulk of the lawsuit revolves around the allegations that the area around the Starship launch site consists of a significant amount of wildlife that is harmed by the testing activities, that people are unable to visit the beach due to closures during testing and that the FAA acted improperly by "deferring" to SpaceX by analyzing the Starship program simply through an Environmental Assessment instead of a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). It also adds that the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) issued by the FAA does not contain adequate measures to address the direct impacts of potential explosions. Instead, it chooses to focus on after-the-fact measures such as debris collection.

In its response, SpaceX denies nearly all allegations against it and dismisses others as characterizing the FAA's assessments under the PEA or as legal conclusions that merit no response. This approach is also followed by the FAA, which rejects any assertions that it acted improperly and adds that it has not approved any SpaceX plan "to launch 20 Starship/Super Heavy rockets per year over the next 5 years."

The lawsuit and SpaceX's subsequent response also share important details regarding an alternative launch site for the Starship rocket. The plaintiffs in their lawsuit argued that the FAA had "failed to analyze" alternate sites for the proposed test launches, such as NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida - which, according to them, SpaceX itself had also suggested.

However, SpaceX's response denies that it had suggested that Starship tests will be conducted at NASA facilities, with the suit simply stating that "SpaceX denies the allegation that it suggested Kennedy Space Center as a site alternative." In press briefings, SpaceX executives have also stated that any Starship operations at Kennedy will take place after the rocket is tested and ready to go.

The rumor mill had been abuzz with Kennedy surfacing as a potential alternative. Still, due to the risky nature of rocket testing, it is unlikely, if not impossible, that NASA would have authorized SpaceX to test the world's largest rocket at America's only spaceport capable of supporting crewed missions. In the early days of the Falcon rocket's test campaign, SpaceX was forced to build facilities at remote islands because the Air Force was unwilling to risk its launch pads for an untested and unproved rocket.