SpaceX Starship launches in Florida too disruptive, Blue Origin, ULA warn

On Jul 8, 2024

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SpaceX’s plan to launch its monstrous Starship-Super Heavy two-stage tandem from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center caught the attention — and concern — of two rival space companies that warn federal officials the up-to-492-foot-tall rocket will be too untested, too dangerous and too potentially disruptive for the nation’s busiest spaceport and the surrounding environment.

United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin — which both have significant footprints on the Space Coast and view SpaceX as direct competition — have submitted written concerns to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA is preparing an environmental impact statement to evaluate potential impacts of Starships launching up to 44 times a year from pad 39A at KSC. SpaceX is also eyeing a potential second Starship launch pad on adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“As the largest rocket in existence, an accident would inflict serious or even catastrophic damage, while normal launch operations would have a cumulative impact on structures, launch vehicle hardware, and other critical launch support equipment,” ULA officials wrote in a 22-page letter to the FAA.

ULA cited the April 2023 Starship explosion at SpaceX’s private launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, that sent debris flying across a six-mile radius. At the Cape, ULA officials noted that their launch pad is only three miles away from pad 39A, and other companies are located nearby.

“If a similar accident occurs again, that debris would reach ULA’s operations and could hurt people or damage property. And with the increased liftoff thrust planned for Starship, the debris from a similar launch failure could reach larger, populated areas surrounding KSC,” the ULA letter said.

Blue Origin employs more than 2,700 full-time workers in Brevard County and has invested more than $1 billion developing the world’s first privately built heavy-lift launch complex for future New Glenn rocket liftoffs.

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In a three-page letter to the FAA, Blue Origin officials proposed to cap the rate of Starship-Super Heavy launches and landings “to a number that has a minimal impact on the local environment, locally operating personnel, and the local community.”

And ULA urged the government to consider an alternative to allowing SpaceX to bring Starship to KSC: Keep the giant rocket in Boca Chica, where it is now.

SpaceX media officials did not return messages seeking comment for this story.

Space companies compete for contracts

In the days following those FAA comments from his competitors, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk took to X to state just two words: “Sue Origin.” Some media reports have characterized these Starship environmental-study comments as a battle between billionaires, notably Musk and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

However, Don Platt, director of the Florida Institute of Technology’s Spaceport Education Center in Titusville, said, “if a large company…