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SpaceX expected to get FAA approval for 25 Starship launches in 2025

Umito November 22, 2024

SpaceX wants to accelerate flights of its Starship megarocket next year, and regulations apparently won’t stand in the way.

On Wednesday, November 20, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a draft environmental assessment (EA) of Spacecraft operations at Starbase, EspaceXat South Texas facilities.

The 160-page document, which you can read hereapproves company’s request to increase the number of annual spacecraft takeoffs from Starbase fivefold, from the five currently allowed to 25 — SpaceX launch target announced for 2025.

EA’s draft also approves 25 landings for the two elements of Starship – its Super Heavy booster and the “Ship” upper stage – returning to Starbase. These landings would take place at the launch tower, which would catch returning vehicles using its “wand” arms. SpaceX managed such a capture once, hang Super Heavy during Starship’s fifth test flight on October 13.

SpaceX is developing Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, to help bring humanity to the Moon and March. The 400-foot-tall (122-meter) vehicle is designed to be fully and quickly reusable, and SpaceX plans to eventually conduct multiple Starship launches per day.

The stainless steel megarocket has been launched six times to date, all in test flights from Starbase. The most recent takeoff, which happened on tuesday (November 19), was a success, although a communication problem prevented Super Heavy from returning to Starbase for a wand grip. Instead, the booster diverted to make a controlled water landing in the Gulf of Mexico.

The recently released environmental assessment is only a draft, so its conclusions are preliminary. The FAA will hold four in-person public meetings in South Texas – two each on January 7 and 9 – and a virtual conclave on January 13 to discuss the EA. You can learn more about them here.

SpaceX and its founder and CEO, Elon Muskto have complained to the FAA much recently, saying the agency had stifled the progress of Starship — and the U.S. launch industry as a whole — with overly burdensome regulation.

Companies in the spaceflight industry, and in most, if not all, other industries, will likely have more freedom to do what they want after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. And Musk will have a say in this effort; Trump nominated the billionaire entrepreneur to co-direct the “Department of Government Effectiveness”, an advisory group that aims to help “dismantle government bureaucracy” and “reduce excessive regulations.”