Starship Launch: A Few Legal Issues on the Ground

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Starship rocket at the SpaceX facility located at Boca Chica, Texas. (SpaceX)

SpaceX and NASA are trying to get ready for the third launch of the Starship, a key component of the Artemis program. Yet some parties here are Earth are still steamed about the April 2023 Starship launch that spread debris at the Texas rocket site.

A group of organizations – the Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Save RGV and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, Inc. – have filed additional legal claims against the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The group’s main concerns, outlined in a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, are:

  • the agencies’ failure to fully analyze and mitigate environmental harms from the April 20 explosion of the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy rocket and launchpad at Boca Chica in south Texas;
  • the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to address the harm from the April 20 explosion and efforts to recover thousands of chunks of concrete and metal from sensitive tidal flat habitat; and
  • the Service further failed to address excessive noise and vibrations from the first launch, including reports that noise levels greatly exceeded what was expected.

Mary Angela Branch, board member at Save RGV, stated;

Approving a massive rocket test launch facility only steps from our state park and national wildlife refuge is unconscionable…This failed launch shows the extent of damage, not just to our wildlife and sensitive eco-system, but to our residential, recreational and tourist communities. The noise, debris, vibrations and explosion proved far too extreme to not be given full environmental assessment by the FAA and Fish and Wildlife Service. Failure to do so is pure negligence and exhibits a blatant disregard for our community life.

This may further slow down efforts to get the Starship testing back on track.

Many have already noted how dumb the first launch was with no provisions for the rocket exhaust. It set a bad precedent that will hang over the Starship launches as long as they continue in Texas.

Space Quote: $5 Million for A Probe of Drug Use at SpaceX

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Mr. Musk smoking during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience show in September 2018. (Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube)

“It is essential for the integrity of the United States space program to ensure that the development and production of the space systems that will transport astronauts is conducted in a manner that prioritizes safety…The Safety and Health provision in the contract requires SpaceX to comply with standard industry practices, applicable laws, and other relevant provisions of the contract, such as the requirement to maintain a drug-free workplace.”

-Statement by NASA’s Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier in a letter to SpaceX back in September 2018, as noted in a recent article in Business Insider. The reporter was not able the results of this expensive audit, but noted that Mr. Gerstenmaier later left NASA and joined SpaceX. Nothing to see here, folks.

Audit Report: Artemis III May Not Be Possible Until 2027

Posted on by onespaceman2000

The legislative branch’s audit arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), has some bad news regarding the Artemis mission to the moon – the landing on the Moon may need to wait until 2027.

Here is what the auditors said in their November 30 report, NASA Artemis Programs: Crewed Moon Landing Faces Multiple Challenges, about NASA’s delays:

As of September 2023, the Human Landing System program had delayed eight of 13 key events by at least 6 months. Two of these events have been delayed to 2025—the year the lander is planned to launch. The delays were caused in part by the Orbital Flight Test, which was intended to demonstrate certain features of the launch vehicle and lander configuration in flight. The test was delayed by 7 months to April 2023. It was then terminated early when the vehicle deviated from its expected trajectory and began to tumble. Subsequent tests rely on successful completion of a second Orbital Flight Test.

The Human Landing System was awarded to SpaceX, which has been having a few issues getting everything to work on schedule. Of course, this is just one of many issues that contribute to potential delays (such as the space suit), but I expect SpaceX does not want to be labeled as the drag on the program when we are trying to beat the Chinese to the Moon.

The audit report is comprehensive and serves as a warning that things are slipping and may continue to slip without sufficient attention.

Artemis represent an international effort to bring together the best parties from the government and private sector for something amazing. The Apollo missions to the Moon were run by one country as a central government program. This is a chance for everyone to shine using a whole new approach. We just need to keep up the momentum.

Space Stories: Japan Bolsters it Space Investments, The Next Starship, and Russia’s Declining Space Program

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of JAXA’s proposed lunar rover with Toyota. (Toyota/JAXA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Forbes: “Modern Space Race: Japan Pledges $6.6 Billion For Developing Space Sector As U.S. And China Plan Historic Missions“

The Japanese government has said it will establish a $6.6 billion (¥1 trillion) fund to develop the country’s space industry as programs in the U.S., Russia, China and India rush to put men on the moon, build lunar sites and plan for the future of the International Space Station in a renewed race for celestial supremacy...Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper, reported that funding will be given to companies developing technologies that could be used to support national security or those that could rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX by developing rockets and “satellite constellations”—groups of satellites that operate as one system.

—PayloadSpace.com: “SpaceX Announces a Starship Version Two is in the Works“

With just two Starship integrated test flights under its belt, SpaceX announced last week it is already working on a major overhaul of its second-stage Starship vehicle. The design changes will be significant enough to speciate the ship, giving it the title of Version 2. SpaceX plans to finish and launch four or five additional Starship V1 prototypes before transitioning to its V2 product line, Elon Musk said on X. Insights gained from the upcoming flights will be integrated into the next-gen rocket.

—Center for European Policy Analysis: “Russia’s Earthly Aggression Cripples its Celestial Plans“

When the US imposed sanctions to degrade Russia’s aerospace industry, including embargoes on semiconductors, lasers, sensors, and navigation equipment, Dmitry Rogozin, then chief of Russia’s space program, warned it might cause the International Space Station to fall on the US or Europe. These comments and others from a supposedly serious scientific organization did cause a crash — the decades-old US-Russia space partnership was effectively ended after decades of joint work, including the Soviet era, that had benefited science, détente, and humanity. The events of 2022-2023 have made it more likely Russia would step away from exploration and, with China, focus on military applications in space. 

Note: The helpful graphic below is used in the Center for European Policy Analysis story.

Podcast: Are We Ready to Start Settlements Off-Planet?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Penguin Press

You may want to tune into another episode from The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio is you are pondering space settlements on the Moon and Mars. The recent program, A City on Mars, is a discussion with authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith who wrote “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?“

The bottom line is that we should not rush towards permanent settlements at either location until we know more about the human body, the human mind, and human politics (good luck with the last one).

The conversation covers a variety of risks, including the effects of gravity on the human body, the ability to procreate in space, and the effectiveness of treaties as nations plan to settle and mine the Moon and Mars. The authors note that we have not had ample time to study all of these issues even with the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit because this has not been the focus of many space efforts to date. For instance, the ISS does not test the impact of radiation on humans because it is in low Earth orbit within the protection of the planet’s magnetic field.

Overall, the authors advise time and more study before jumping into a settlement. This may mean putting off permanent settlements for a few hundred years.

And what about Elon Musk’s plan to start shipping colonists to Mars in his lifetime? As with many things related to Mr. Musk, he does oversell ideas. His energy in the infrastructure realm is good, but his predictions related to humanity in general are usually unreliable.

Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a Martian space city. (SpaceX)