FAA Tells SpaceX What It Needs To Do To Launch Starship

FAA Requires SpaceX to Take Over 75 Actions to Mitigate Environmental Impact of Planned Starship/Super Heavy Launches, FAA

"The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will require SpaceX to take more than 75 actions to mitigate environmental impacts from its proposed plan to launch the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle from Boca Chica, Texas. The actions are part of the agency's environmental review. The environmental review must be completed along with public safety, national security, and other analyses before a decision on whether to grant a launch license can be made. The license application is still pending."

Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (Final PEA) and Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision (Mitigated FONSI/ROD) for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas, FAA

"Provisions contained in CEQ's NEPA‐implementing regulations and in FAA Order 1050.1F, Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures, require the preparation of a supplemental EA if the applicant makes substantial modifications in the proposed action that are relevant to environmental concerns or there are significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns or bearing on the proposed action or its impacts (see, e.g., FAA Order 1050.1F, Paragraph 9‐3). After independently reviewing SpaceX's project modifications noted above, the FAA does not consider these modifications to be "substantial" in the context of presenting new or additional potential impacts beyond the scope already addressed in the draft PEA. Further, the removal of the proposed infrastructure reduces the Proposed Action's anticipated environmental consequences."