FAA Pushes Off Release of Environmental Assessment of SpaceX Launch Vehicles

The final version of the PEA was set to be published this Friday, but it was pushed back to allow SpaceX ample time to respond to the more than 18,000 comments submitted. Additionally, SpaceX is preparing the final PEA for review.

The PEA describes the environmental impact of SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicles, designed for an eventual mission to Mars. In order to develop the project, SpaceX will have to vastly expand its pre-existing Boca Chica launch site, near the Texas coast.

The PEA serves as an overview for the proposed expansions at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site in Texas. In October, the FAA held two public hearings for the draft PEA that featured support from across the country, and dissent from multiple local residents.

“I am appalled by the audacity of all these pro-SpaceX supporters spouting the exact same rhetoric, spotted by a billionaire with nothing but his own interest in mind so that he can make more money off of his apartheid emeralds,” local resident Emma Guevara said during the hearing. “This has nothing to do with you. Listen to directly impacted voices. The FAA needs to, at the very least, do an environmental impact statement, but at the most, this entire project should be canceled.”

The FAA received heavy criticism from Spanish-speaking residents, who said they were not promptly notified about the hearings and were not shown translated versions of the presentation.

“The Spanish translation and outreach by the FAA is a joke and, in fact, is actually a violation of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” local resident Bekah Hinojosa said. “A Spanish notice was only sent out three days before the hearing, with only one Spanish email. The FAA did virtually no public outreach.”

That, however, didn’t stop nearby Brownsville City Commissioner Jessica Tetreau Kalifa from pleading to the FAA to grant SpaceX’s approval.

“I don’t just ask you, I beg you to give them that permit,” she said. “There are so many people here in the Brownsville area who have benefited from this project coming to our area.”

It’s unknown if the FAA will grant SpaceX’s PEA an approval.