SpaceX blasts proposed FAA fines in complaint letter to Congress

SpaceX has taken its dispute with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Capitol Hill.

On Tuesday (Sept. 17), the FAA announced that it plans to fine SpaceX $630,000 for allegedly skirting regulations on two launches last year. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk responded to the news that same day, declaring on X (formerly Twitter) that the company intends to sue the FAA "for regulatory overreach." 

Now, the company has sent a letter to Congress contesting the proposed fine and calling out the agency for moving too slowly.

The two missions cited by the FAA were PSN SATRIA, an Indonesian communications satellite that rode to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket on June 18, 2023, and EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3, another telecom craft, which lifted off on a Falcon Heavy on July 28 of that year.

Both launches occurred on Florida's Space Coast — PSN SATRIA from SpaceX's pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3 from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which is right next door.

Related: SpaceX launches PSN SATRIA communications satellite for Indonesia, lands rocket at sea (video)

The FAA claimed SpaceX violated two regulations on the PSN SATRIA launch: The company used a new launch control room and removed a readiness poll (usually taken two hours prior to liftoff) without waiting for either modification to be approved. The company had submitted a request to make those revisions, but that request had not been approved by the time of liftoff, according to the FAA.

For EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter 3, SpaceX used a newly built rocket propellant farm at KSC that had not yet been greenlit, the FAA stated.

SpaceX contests these alleged violations at length in the new letter, which it sent to the chair and ranking member of both the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 

For example, the letter — which SpaceX also posted on X and emailed to journalists — claims that there is no requirement in the launch regulations to conduct a readiness poll two hours before liftoff. "Importantly, SpaceX conducts a poll prior to propellant loading, later in the count, consistent with safe operations," the company wrote.

The letter goes into great detail about the other two alleged infractions, explaining why SpaceX does not view them as such. For instance, the company noted that, on Aug. 20, 2023, the FAA issued a waiver allowing the use of the propellant farm ahead of SpaceX's launch of the Crew-7 astronaut mission for NASA, which lifted off from KSC on Aug. 26 of that year.

"The waiver that the FAA issued stated that granting the waiver 'would not jeopardize public health and safety, the safety of property, or any national security or foreign policy interest of the United States,'" SpaceX wrote.

"Since SpaceX's operations for the Echostar XXIV/Jupiter 3 launch and the Crew-7 launch were the same as related to the new RP-1 farm, it's not clear why the FAA made a positive safety determination for the Crew-7 launch, but could not do the same for the Echostar XXIV/Jupiter 3 launch," the company added. (RP-1 is the kerosene propellant used by the Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy.)

Overall, SpaceX wrote, the company "forcefully rejects the FAA's assertion that it violated any regulations."

The letter also criticizes the FAA more generally, claiming that the agency is holding the American launch industry back.

"For well over a year now, SpaceX has voiced its concerns with the FAA's inability to keep pace with the commercial space industry and the needs of U.S. Government agencies that rely on commercial space launch capability for national security and national priorities," concludes the document, which is signed by David Harris, SpaceX vice president for legal.

Some of SpaceX's frustration stems from what it sees as over-regulation of Starship, the giant new rocket the company is developing to help settle the moon and Mars. SpaceX claims it has been ready to launch Starship's fifth test flight since early August, but the FAA says that approval for the liftoff likely won't come until late November. 

The agency has said that it and its partners need more time to review potential environmental impacts, as well as modifications that SpaceX made to Starship's configuration and mission profile after its fourth test flight, which occurred in June.