Why Elon Musk’s Starship rocket could launch more often under Trump: NPR

SpaceX’s spaceship is located on the Boca Chica launch pad. The launch will take place on November 19.

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Later today, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX will conduct another test of the largest rocket ever built.

If all goes according to plan, the giant rocket known as Starship will lift off from its launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas sometime after 5:00 PM ET. The Starship will fly around part of the world before landing in the Southern Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, its superheavy booster will attempt to return to the launch site in Texas, where two robotic arms attached to the launch tower will try to grab it in mid-air.

It will be the sixth test launch of the giant rocket, and the second in as many months. The tests are the latest sign that SpaceX is looking to quickly accelerate Starship development. Next year, the company has said it wants to carry out as many as 25 launches.

So far, environmental concerns have held SpaceX back. Under the current environmental assessment, the Federal Aviation Administration limits SpaceX to five launches per year. And earlier this year, the FAA delayed licensing a flight after the Environmental Protection Agency fined SpaceX for violating the Clean Water Act.

But with the election of President Trump, these types of regulatory barriers could become a thing of the past. At a rally last month in Tempe, Arizona, Trump boasted that American astronauts would soon go to Mars: “Let that spaceship go, Elon,” he said.

Trump did not explicitly refer to the Starship program, but many expect SpaceX will get the green light to accelerate testing of the rocket.

“I think the biggest difference in the coming year will be on the regulatory front,” said Lori Garver, former NASA deputy administrator under Barack Obama. “The FAA and EPA will not raise flags as they have done in recent years.”

Big rocket, big plans

SpaceX is already a major contractor for the US government. Billions have been paid to launch satellites and for other services, such as building a network of spy satellites. NASA has explicitly allocated approximately $4 billion for Starship development. The space agency would like to use space as a lunar lander.

Spaceship is also at the heart of Elon Musk’s dreams of turning humanity into a multiplanetary species. He hopes the giant rocket will radically reduce the cost of launching people and equipment into space. Musk has said he wants to see starships travel to Mars with the aim of creating a self-sustaining colony.

Starship’s development cost SpaceX billions and is “likely absorbing money rather than generating it at this point,” said Tim Farrar, president of TMF Associates, which analyzes the satellite industry.

Still, he says, Starship is central to SpaceX’s plans for the future.

“The promise of Starship is something that’s quite important for SpaceX when it comes to convincing investors to keep pouring in money at ever higher valuations,” he says.

Delivering on Starship’s promise comes at an environmental cost. The Boca Chica launch site is located in the middle of state and federally protected wetlands. Biologists have documented that the noise and heat from launches damage the eggs of nesting birds. Documents from the EPA and a request to Texas regulators suggest that each launch also releases tens of thousands of gallons of water contaminated with chemicals from the launch into the local environment.

SpaceX denies the water causes serious damage and claims it is a good environmental steward: “The narrative that we operate free of, or in violation of, environmental regulations is demonstrably false,” the company said in a statement in September. “SpaceX is committed to minimizing impact and improving the environment wherever possible.”

But environmental groups disagree. The FAA is currently being sued by the Center for Biological Diversity and local environmental groups for failing to complete an adequate environmental impact statement before allowing SpaceX Starship to launch even once from the site.

Jared Margolis, a senior attorney leading the case, says if regulators do less in a new Trump administration, the courts could ultimately play a bigger role.

“We are not afraid to confront the Trump administration,” Margolis said. “We’re not afraid to make sure environmental laws are followed. That’s what we do.”