WASHINGTON — SpaceX can have spent $5 billion or more on its Starship vehicle and launch infrastructure by the top of this yr, in accordance with court filings and comments by the corporate’s chief executive.
SpaceX filed a motion with federal district court within the District of Columbia May 19, asking to be added as a defendant within the lawsuit filed by several environmental and Native American groups against the Federal Aviation Administration May 1. That suit alleges the FAA improperly carried out an environmental review of SpaceX Starship launches from Boca Chica, Texas.
In the corporate’s filing, generally known as a motion to intervene, SpaceX argued that it was affected by the suit, which seeks to revoke the prevailing launch license the FAA issued for Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches from Boca Chica by claiming the FAA violated environmental law and regulations within the licensing process.
If the plaintiffs win the case, SpaceX stated, “the FAA’s decision may very well be put aside, and further licensing of the Starship/Super Heavy Program may very well be significantly delayed, causing severe injury to SpaceX’s business.”
To make that argument, the corporate included an announcement from Bret Johnsen, chief financial officer at SpaceX. He said that, if the plaintiffs win, the corporate’s ability to generate revenue from Starship launches for each NASA and business customers “can be substantially delayed and jeopardized.”
He specifically noted that since a 2014 “record of decision” by the FAA, allowing SpaceX to develop launch facilities at Boca Chica (originally for the Falcon family of launch vehicles), “SpaceX has invested greater than $3 billion into developing the Boca Chica launch facility and Starship/Super Heavy launch system.”
The statement didn’t break out the investment between the launch vehicle itself and infrastructure. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, in an April 29 online discussion on Twitter, the social media network he also owns, estimated that the corporate would spend about $2 billion on Starship this yr.
“It’ll probably be a pair billion dollars this yr, two billion dollars-ish, all in on Starship,” he said, adding that he didn’t expect to must raise funding to finance that work. He also said in that conversation that he expected Starship to launch 4 to 5 more times this yr and “can be surprised” if the corporate didn’t achieve orbit by the top of the yr.
That schedule, though, is determined by each the technical progress SpaceX makes in repairing the damaged launch pad and getting the following vehicle ready for flight — Musk is thought for making aspirational schedules — in addition to the consequence of the suit.
Johnsen, in his statement, outlined details of the implications of any delay in launches attributable to the suit. That features nearly $1 billion in milestone payments on its NASA Human Landing System award linked to the primary orbital launch and subsequent steps, which include demonstration of in-space propellant transfer, an uncrewed lunar landing and crewed landing. Neither the corporate nor SpaceX have previously outlined the schedule of milestone payments on its $2.9 billion award for Starship lander development for the Artemis 3 mission.
He also stated that SpaceX has invested billions into its Starlink satellite broadband constellation, and can be harmed if it cannot launch its larger “V2” satellites that require Starship. He said “a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals” have placed deposits for service but are waiting until those larger satellites might be launched to have sufficient capability to serve them.
On a smaller scale, he said that SpaceX offered Starship/Super Heavy to NASA’s Enterprise-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract for smallsat launches. The corporate estimated VADR to generate at the least $10 million in annual revenue for the corporate, a small fraction of a single business Falcon 9 launch.
The SpaceX motion to intervene is certainly one of the few updates for the reason that suit was filed. The court set a July 1 deadline for a “responsive pleading” from the FAA.
