Dude, Where Is My Launch License?
The inspiration for this piece is the Launch License or lack of Launch License for SpaceX. The FAA is up to its old arbitrary hurdle tricks with some arbitrary impediments to progress. Is the rhetoric from the Whitehouse not making it 2 miles down the street to the FAA?
From the FAA’s space stakeholder (bag-holder) page –
Additional measures to address impacts to fish, wildlife and plants, and resources protected by the National Historic Preservation Act will be required. Some examples of these measures
include:
• Ongoing monitoring of vegetation and wildlife by a qualified biologist;
• Ensuring notification of surrounding communities in advance about potential engine noise and sonic booms from launches;
• Coordinating with state or federal agencies to remove launch debris from sensitive habitats;
•Adjusting lighting at the launch complex to minimize impact on wildlife and the nearby beach.
I love wildlife as much as the next person, but without Space X, we are beholden to the Russians and paid them $3.9 billion in 2020. I imagine this cost will also be subject to Putin’s price hike, just like everything else.
If you can waive the leaded gasoline 100 Low Lead Avgas for decades, knowing no amount of lead ingestion is safe for kids, we should be able to wave these concerns under the current circumstances quickly. Unless you want to fill a country’s coffers, the President went on TV and said it is in need of regime change or be left in the dust by the Chinese space program.
Ahh, pay it no, never mind, as we’re all banking on the multi-billion-dollar single launch NASA SLS, LOL!
