SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that his rocket company will sue the Federal Aviation Administration for “regulatory overreach” after the agency fined the company $630,000 for violating launch regulations.
In a post on X Tuesday, Mr. Musk called the FAA’s accusations “More lawfare.” Soon after, Mr. Musk announced that his company will sue the regulator for regulatory overreach.
Lawfare is abuse of the system https://t.co/gGihiwIBxp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2024
According to the FAA, SpaceX violated launch requirements during two missions: In July 2023, during SpaceX’s EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter mission, the company used an unapproved propellant farm as a fuel supplier. In May 2023, it failed to conduct a pre-launch poll and used an unapproved launch control room.
“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. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”
SpaceX has 30 days to respond to the accusations, the FAA said.
SpaceX’s challenge to the FAA accusations comes one week after the rocket company accused the regulator of slowing down innovation with unnecessary regulation.
In a Sept. 10 blog post, SpaceX lamented the amount of regulatory red tape it had to cut through to launch a rocket successfully. According to SpaceX, regulators had delayed a rocket launch by two months over what it called a “superfluous” environmental analysis.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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