Elon Musk reveals SpaceX will sue the FAA

Elon Musk revealed his space exploration company known as SpaceX will be suing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for “regulatory overreach,” the CEO said today.

The move comes just hours after the FAA announced it would extend over $600,000 in fines to SpaceX for three violations across two launches that occurred during mid-2023.

Earlier today, we reported that SpaceX’s Satria-1 launch on June 18, 2023, as well as the XXIV/Jupiter launch in late July had violations. SpaceX “proposed revisions including adding a new launch control room at Hangar X and removing the T-2 hour readiness poll from its procedures” related to the Satria-1 launch.

However, neither was approved by the FAA in time for the launch. SpaceX performed these anyway, and each could cost the company $175,000, or $350,000 in total, for both violations.

Meanwhile, SpaceX submitted a request in July to the FAA to modify its explosive sight plan for the XXIV/Jupiter launch, a newly constructed rocket propellant farm. Once again, the FAA did not respond to the mission in time, so SpaceX used the new rocket propellant farm anyway.

The FAA proposed a $283,009 penalty.

SpaceX has 30 days to respond, but Musk has other plans.

Today, in a post on X, Musk confirmed SpaceX would sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach.”

SpaceX will be filing suit against the FAA for regulatory overreach

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2024

Musk went on to explain that he was “highly confident that discovery will show improper, politically-motivated behavior by the FAA.”

I am highly confident that discovery will show improper, politically-motivated behavior by the FAA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2024

In a post last week, SpaceX said it had been given a delayed date for the fifth test flight of Starship and blamed media headlines and “superfluous environmental analysis.”

It seems strange that the FAA would bring these fines forward more than a year after the launches, when the agency must have known, without a doubt, that it had not approved SpaceX to take specific measures. Musk seems to think it could be retaliation.

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