![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_3360-copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Onlookers watch from nearby sand dunes as SpaceX prepares a Starship rocket for launch from Starbase, Texas.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n Stephen Clark\/Ars Technica<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
The changes to the environmental review process might be the most controversial part of Trump\u2019s new executive order. Another section of the order\u2014the attempt to reform or rescind the so-called Part 450 launch and reentry regulations\u2014appears to have bipartisan support in Congress.<\/p>\n
The FAA started implementing its new Part 450 commercial launch and reentry regulations less than five years ago after writing the rules in response to another Trump executive order signed in 2018. Part 450 was intended to streamline the launch approval process by allowing companies to submit applications for a series of launches or reentries, rather than requiring a new license for each mission.<\/p>\n
But industry officials quickly criticized the new regulations, which they said didn\u2019t account for rapid iteration of rockets and spacecraft like SpaceX\u2019s enormous Starship\/Super Heavy launch vehicle. The FAA approved a SpaceX request in May to increase the number of approved Starship launches from five to 25 per year from the company\u2019s base in Starship, Texas, near the US-Mexico border.<\/p>\n
Last year, the FAA\u2019s leadership under the Biden administration established a committee to examine the shortcomings of Part 450. The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee submitted a joint request in February for the Government Accountability Office to conduct an independent review of the FAA\u2019s Part 450 regulations.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
\u201cReforming and streamlining commercial launch regulations and licensing is an area the Biden administration knew needed reform,\u201d wrote Laura Forczyk, founder and executive director of the space consulting firm Astralytical, in a post on X. \u201cHowever, little was done. Will more be done with this executive order? I hope so. This was needed years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, applauded the Trump administration\u2019s regulatory policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis executive order will strengthen and grow the US commercial space industry by cutting red tape while maintaining a commitment to public safety, benefitting the American people and the US government that are increasingly reliant on space for our national and economic security,\u201d Cavossa said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Specific language in the new Trump executive order calls for the FAA to evaluate which regulations should be waived for hybrid launch or reentry vehicles that hold FAA airworthiness certificates, and which requirements should be remitted for rockets with a flight termination system, an explosive charge designed to destroy a launch vehicle if it veers off its pre-approved course after liftoff. These are similar to the topics the Biden-era FAA was looking at last year.<\/p>\n
The new Trump administration policy also seeks to limit the authority of state officials in enforcing their own environmental rules related to the construction or operation of spaceports.<\/p>\n
This is especially relevant after the California Coastal Commission rejected a proposal by SpaceX to double its launch cadence at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a spaceport located roughly 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. The Space Force, which owns Vandenberg and is one of SpaceX\u2019s primary customers, backs SpaceX\u2019s push for more launches.<\/p>\n
Finally, the order gives the Department of Commerce responsibility for authorizing \u201cnovel space activities\u201d such as in-space assembly and manufacturing, asteroid and planetary mining, and missions to remove space debris from orbit.<\/p>\n
This story was updated at 12:30 am EDT on August 14 with statements from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing government agencies to \u201celiminate or expedite\u201d environmental reviews for commercial launch and reentry licenses. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), grants licenses for commercial launch and reentry operations. The FAA is charged with ensuring launch and reentries comply with environmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}