Skip to main content

FAA review of SpaceX Starship launch delayed by another month

SpaceX won’t be able to test its next-generation Starship rocket for some time yet, as the company will have to wait a while longer for clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The release of the FAA’s final environmental review of the launch has been delayed until May 31, as the agency wrote in an update.

The environmental review, called the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), has already been through a draft stage last year. But now the FAA says it will wait to release its final report until the end of next month. This follows a previous announcement by the FAA that it intended to release the review at the end of April, but that won’t happen now.

SpaceX's Starship spacecraft atop the Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft atop the Super Heavy booster at SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX

The launch at issue is the first orbital test flight of the Starship, when the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft will be launched into the air, then both sections will splash down into the ocean around 90 minutes later.

The concept of a PEA is to assess whether a planned launch could cause any threat to public safety, such as by flying over a populated area, whether it raises any national security issues, coverage of insurance issues, and any environmental impacts of the launch. In an explanation of the delay, the FAA said it was finalizing the review and that it was responding to public comments following the draft report.

“The FAA is finalizing the review of the Final PEA, including responding to comments and ensuring consistency with SpaceX’s licensing application,” the agency wrote. “The FAA is also completing consultation and confirming mitigations for the proposed SpaceX operations. All consultations must be complete before the FAA can issue the Final PEA.”

Though space enthusiasts and SpaceX fans will be unhappy about this latest delay, it’s not clear if the Starship prototype is actually ready for its first orbital test flight. As space.com reports, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said last month that the company still needed to finish building its engines and integrate them into the Starship, so he was estimating May at the earliest for the first orbital test flight of the Starship.

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
Will SpaceX’s failed Starship flight impact NASA’s moon plan?
Artist concept of the SpaceX Starship on the surface of the Moon.

SpaceX’s Starship vehicle suffered what the spaceflight company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” on Thursday. In other words, it blew up.

The good news is that the uncrewed rocket cleared the pad and flew for around four minutes before meeting its fiery end. It means the SpaceX team will have plenty of valuable data on the rocket's flight performance, enabling it to refine the rocket’s systems to give it an improved chance of completing the second test flight and sending the Starship to orbit.

Read more
SpaceX Starship rocket launches in first test flight, but explodes in midair
spacex starship launch explosion

SpaceX has launched its integrated Starship for the first time, with the spacecraft and rocket leaving the launchpad on a test flight. However, not everything went smoothly during the test, as the rocket exploded before the separation of the Starship spacecraft from the Super Heavy rocket booster.

The launch from SpaceX's Starbase facility at Boca Chica in Texas saw the Starship leave the launch pad at 9:33 a.m. ET, consisting of the integrated Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy Booster, which form the world's most powerful rocket. The combined Starship will be used for future missions to the moon and beyond, launched from a launch-and-catch tower standing at an impressive height of nearly 500 feet tall.

Read more
How to watch SpaceX launch record-breaking Starship rocket on Thursday
The Starship, comprising the first-stage Super Heavy and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft, on the launchpad at SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

Starship Flight Test

Update: SpaceX called off Monday's launch attempt due to a technical issue. It's now targeting Thursday, April 20. Full details below. 

Read more