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SpaceX’s new Texas launch site will undergo an environmental review to prepare for the first flights of the company’s new Starship spacecraft.
The privately-owned spaceflight company has a launch site in South Texas, near the village of Boca Chica, where prototype spacecraft are currently being built and tested. The Starship spacecraft is SpaceX’s next-generation transportation system designed to take people to and from the moon, Mars and beyond.
On November 23, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that SpaceX plans to apply for licenses for Starship’s suborbital and orbital launches. The FAA will conduct an environmental review of the site before SpaceX can launch its new spacecraft, powered by the Super Heavy rocket.
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“The proposed update of Starship / Super Heavy operations is outside the scope of the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Decision Report for the launch site and requires additional environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ”the FAA said in a statement.
NEPA helps ensure that environmental impacts are assessed during the launch authorization process. In order to receive the appropriate licenses for suborbital and orbital launches, SpaceX must comply with environmental and safety regulations. In addition, the company must develop agreements for the license application, according to the statement.
Currently, the FAA is in the early stages of completing the environmental review of the launch site and developing a public education plan. SpaceX is in the process of drafting an environmental assessment (EA), which will determine the impact of the Starship launch from the Texas site, as well as appropriate mitigation measures. The EA will also be subject to evaluation and approval by the FAA.
SpaceX has started hiring offshore operations engineers to help develop the super-heavy class floating space ports that will be used to launch Starship. If all goes according to plan, SpaceX representatives said the first operational Starship missions could launch as early as next year.
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