![SpaceX said this week that Starship is stacked and ready to fly its second test flight.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/starship-stacked-800x450.jpg)
SpaceX
In a remarkably frank discussion this week, several senior SpaceX officials spoke with Ars Technica on background about how working with the Federal Aviation Administration has slowed down the corporate’s progress not only on development of the Starship program, but on innovations with the Falcon 9 and Dragon programs as well.
The SpaceX officials said they wish to be clear that the FAA is doing a fairly good job with the resources it has, and that everybody supports the mission of secure spaceflight. Nonetheless, they said, the FAA needs significantly more people working in its licensing department and must be encouraged to prioritize missions of national importance.
In recent months, in line with SpaceX, its programs have needed to compete with each other for reviews on the FAA. This has significantly slowed down the Starship program and put development of a Human Landing System for NASA’s Artemis program in danger. Inefficient regulation, the officials said, is decreasing American competitiveness as space programs in China and elsewhere all over the world rise.
The discussion with Ars was convened by SpaceX upfront of a hearing on Wednesday before the US Subcommittee on Space and Science, at which William Gerstenmaier, vp of Construct and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, might be one in every of the people testifying. SpaceX hopes that Congress will provide guidance to the FAA on methods to operate more efficiently.
“Perhaps the committee can provide them the large picture goals of what they need to perform for the US, after which perhaps the FAA might be a little bit more progressive in how they interpret among the rules and regulations,” a SpaceX official said. “Their mission is to enable secure spaceflight. We cannot surrender on the protection side, but could there be a little bit bit more emphasis on the enable side?”
Staffing concerns
SpaceX is on pace to launch about 90 rockets this yr, primarily Falcon 9 boosters from Florida. Next yr, the corporate goals to extend that rate by about 50 percent. That’s on top of latest entrants comparable to United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, Blue Origin’s Recent Glenn, and other smaller rockets coming online. Then there’s the increased flight rate by Virgin Galactic, the return to flight by Blue Origin’s Recent Shepard suborbital tourism rocket, and the potential for high-altitude balloon flights.
“We see a trainwreck coming,” said one in every of the SpaceX officials, citing all of this work that the FAA must perform.
“Next yr might be a reasonably dynamic time with a lot of providers in spaceflight,” one other SpaceX official said. “Our concern is even today Falcon and Dragon are sometimes competing for FAA resources with Starship, and the FAA can’t handle those three activities together. So let alone what’s coming next yr, or perhaps even later this yr, we just don’t think the FAA is staffed able to support that.”
Through the hearing on Wednesday, Gerstenmaier will recommend that the FAA double the staff within the licensing division of its Office of Business Space Transportation, which is generally known as AST. As well as, the FAA must be given “accelerated hiring authority” to attract from the very best pool of candidates.
The corporate also believes that license applicants should have the ability to opt-in to assist fund independent third-party technical support to help the FAA surge within the near term while the agency goes through the hiring process.