The Federal Aviation Administration wants to fine SpaceX $633,009 for allegedly failing to follow launch rules, drawing an online rebuke from Elon Musk, the spaceflight company’s billionaire founder whom Donald Trump has said he would consider appointing to reduce federal regulations in a Trump administration.
By Aaron Gregg
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. Musk, in responding to a post about the fines on X, appeared to suggest his company is being unfairly targeted by regulators, replying “more lawfare.”
The FAA says its penalties are meant to ensure the company is being safe in its operations.
“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial space transportation licenses,” FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols said in a statement.
The agency’s proposed fines are based on technical issues. It alleges SpaceX used an unapproved launch control room without conducting a required readiness poll during a June 18, 2023, launch, drawing a proposed $350,000 civil penalty. The remaining $283,009 in proposed penalties stem from using an unapproved rocket propellant storage site for a different mission a month later.
The two penalties come on top of an earlier $175,000 penalty for failing to provide regulators with “collision avoidance trajectory data” in a 2022 satellite launch, which the FAA confirmed was later paid by the company.
Musk has expressed interest in being part of a “government efficiency commission” under Trump aimed at eliminating wasteful regulations and spending.
He has often tussled with regulators and shareholders in running his various businesses. In 2022, Musk was sued over Tesla investment losses after a public tweet saying he had secured funding to take the electric vehicle manufacturer private, although he was later found not liable in that case. The SEC also investigated him in relation to his takeover of Twitter, now called X.
Musk has broadly criticized federal regulation of the commercial spaceflight industry, which he says moves too slowly and stifles innovation.
In an appearance last week at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, Musk said his company is waiting for regulatory approval for the next flight of Starship, the company’s biggest and most powerful rocket to date.
“It really should not be possible to build a giant rocket faster than paper can move from one desk to another,” Musk said.
Musk has said he wants Starship to reach Mars in 2026, as part of his aspiration for humanity to “become a space-faring species.” The trade publication Space.com reported that the approval of the next Starship flight is not expected before late November.
“If we can get some improvement in the speed of regulation we can actually move a lot faster,” Musk said. “It’s not to allow anything unsafe, it’s to ensure the processing of the safe thing is done faster than the rocket is built, not slower.”
The issue of regulating the private space industry has also drawn the attention of Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, who positioned the issue as part of a geopolitical competition with Russia and China to develop the best space technology.
In a Tuesday letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, Rubio and Scott said unspecified “industry stakeholders” have reported significant challenges in getting licenses for launch or reentry under a new regulation because of “overly specific, cumbersome and often restrictive requirements.”
Rubio has reported campaign contributions from several leading defense contractors that develop space technology, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and RTX, according to OpenSecrets.
The FAA’s “licensing timelines must keep pace with commercial space activity, and we cannot allow management issues to give China an edge in the race back to the Moon,” Rubio and Scott wrote.
