Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday November 22, @12:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-boxes-on-all-forms-must-be-checked dept.

SpaceX's Shotwell Says US Regulators Must 'Go Faster'

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell fired off fresh criticism at US regulators on Friday, saying rocket launch approvals need to catch up with the pace her company is innovating.

[....] Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company plans to launch the sixth major test of its new Starship vehicle on Tuesday, and sees as many as 400 launches of the moon and Mars craft over the next four years, Shotwell said. That compares with a record 148 missions that US regulators authorized for the entire commercial space industry in the government's most recent fiscal year.

[....] In September, Musk, SpaceX's founder and Chief Executive Officer, called on the head of the FAA to resign and claimed that government paperwork to license a launch takes longer than building the actual rocket.

On Thursday, the FAA said it plans to update its launch and reentry licensing rule, as the number of space operations could more than double by 2028, it said.

What did FAA do back when aircraft were new and novel, and could be dangerous?


Original Submission

 
This discussion was created by janrinok (52) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 27, @04:57AM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 27, @04:57AM (#1383518) Journal

    Is SpaceX getting delays others aren't?

    Sure. Because they launch more, they get more of those delays.

  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday November 27, @05:06AM (3 children)

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 27, @05:06AM (#1383520)
    🤣 I got my answer.
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 27, @05:33AM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 27, @05:33AM (#1383526) Journal
      Indeed. So why are you laughing rather than taking a serious answer seriously?
      • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday November 27, @05:45AM (1 child)

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 27, @05:45AM (#1383528)
        Because it was a serious dodge. Also because if you had something prudent you would have shut my ass up with it a few posts back.

        We're having this conversation because SpaceX wants profit. 🖖
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 27, @07:01AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 27, @07:01AM (#1383536) Journal
          Sorry, I disagree. Here's the situation: the FAA uses a process that was already terrible (for example, requiring environmental review for every launch, even though the great majority don't do anything that hasn't been done before), slow, and with plenty of opportunity for rivals to screw with you. SpaceX now operates in a high frequency regime where that makes even less sense than it did before. As I noted SpaceX gets delays others don't because of their high launch frequency.

          And we already have an alternative that works much better - regular aviation safety. This is a problem solved a half century ago.

          We're having this conversation because SpaceX wants profit.

          Should we do dumb things because someone might make a profit? What's missed here is that nobody was interested in fixing these problems because FAA regulation was part of a greater barrier to entry that preserved their profits (other examples: NASA-enforced orbital launch cartel and the thicket of regulation surrounding government contracts). The people with standing to contest the regulations were fine with the regulations. Now that this has become a significant obstruction to SpaceX launch frequency, SpaceX's rivals are even more fine with it now.

          Incidentally, this is part of why so much bad regulation survives decade after decade. The people with standing to contest the regulation in court, profit from it instead. It's only when things transition from profitable to not, that they wake up and contest it.