Republic World by Harsh Vardhan 3/27/2022
https://www.republicworld.com/science/space/spacexs-starship-environmental-assessment-pushed-to-april-29-faa-releases-statement-articleshow.htmlSpaceX's first-ever orbital flight of its Starship rocket will likely be delayed again as the FAA will now issue its environmental assessment on April 29.
In another setback to the first-ever Starship orbital flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it is delaying the environmental assessment of the launch facility by a month. The FAA had set the date for releasing the assessment and licensing SpaceX for the Starship launch on March 28 which has now been pushed to April 29. According to CNBC's Michael Sheetz, the FAA said in its official statement, "The FAA is currently reviewing the final PEA (Programmatic Environmental Assessment) and completing consultation and coordination with agencies at the local, state and federal level".
Assessment does not guarantee flight license: FAA
SpaceX requires the FAA to complete the assessment in order to procure a license to launch the Starship rocket after ensuring that the mission would not pose threat to public safety, national security and the environment. However, the FAA has clarified in its statement that, "The completion of the environmental assessment will not guarantee that the FAA will issue a license to SpaceX to launch its Starship/ Super Heavy vehicle. SpaceX's license application must also meet FAA safety, risk and financial responsibility requirements".
This comes as a surprise since SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said that he was hopeful for Starship's launch given FAA cleared the rocket for launch in March. In a tweet posted on March 22, Musk had said, "We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test". It is worth noting that this the second delay by the administration regarding the completion of the assessment. Initially, the futuristic Starship rocket was targeted for take-off in December 2021 but was pushed into 2022. This was followed by the FAA's statement of releasing the assessment on February 28 which was postponed to March 28. The Starship rocket is currently standing tall at the Starbase facility at Boca Chica in Texas.
Michael Sheetz
@thesheetztweetz
The FAA is delaying the environmental assessment on SpaceX's Starship facility by another month, to April 29 from March 28.
Full statement:
