FAA says SpaceX Texas Starship launch tower is unapproved

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning in a letter two months ago to Elon Musk’s SpaceX that its massive launch tower in Texas is unapproved.

The agency said that before the Starship launch tower will receive approval it must be included in an ongoing environmental review of the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas. An FAA spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday that SpaceX is building the launch tower at its own risk, noting that a negative environmental review could require the tower to be taken down.

“It is possible that changes would have to be made at the launch site, including the integration towers to mitigate significant impacts,” the FAA said, citing video footage of the tower’s construction “publicly available.”

The FAA letter was issued to SpaceX on May 6 after the company said in a prior letter that the launch tower in Boca Chica should not be included in the environmental review because the company only “intends to use the integration tower for production, research, and development purposes and not for FAA-licenses or –permitted launches.”

Daniel Murray, FAA safety authorization division manager wrote in response to the letter that SpaceX’s project description in the “administrative Programmatic Environmental Assessment provided to the FAA on May 5, 2021, indicates otherwise.” He added that the “480-foot-tall integration tower is substantially taller than the water tower and lighting towers assessed in 2014” environmental assessment. 

The FAA began an environmental review of SpaceX’s Starship development facility last year. This followed the company’s plan to apply for licenses to launch the next-generation rocket prototypes from Boca Chica. An earlier environmental assessment was done in 2014. It was specific to SpaceX’s much-smaller Falcon rocket series.

Starship prototypes are about 160 feet tall, about the size of a 16-story building. They are built of stainless steel and initially launch on a “Super Heavy” booster which makes up half of the bottom of the rocket and stands 230 feet tall. Together, the Starship and the Super Heavy stand nearly 400 feet tall.

Over the past year, SpaceX has conducted multiple short flight tests with the prototypes. However, to get issued a license to proceed to the next step in rocket testing, the company needs to pass the FAA environmental screening. The company is set to launch the first orbital spaceflight of its Starship rocket this month, said President Gwyne Shotwell.

In May, SpaceX revealed its plans for the July orbital spaceflight which is scheduled to launch from its Texas facility and will splash down off the coast of Hawaii.