Five environmental and cultural heritage groups are suing the Federal Aviation Administration, alleging that the agency violated the National Environment Policy Act when it allowed SpaceX to launch the largest rocket ever built from its Boca Chica, Texas facility without a comprehensive environmental review, according to court filings obtained by CNBC.
SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy test flight on April 20 blew up the company’s launch pad, hurling chunks of concrete and metal sheets thousands of feet away into sensitive habitat, spreading particulate matter including pulverized concrete for miles, and sparking a 3.5-acre fire on state park lands near the launch site.
The lawsuit against the FAA was filed in a district court in Washington D.C. on Monday by plaintiffs including: The Center for Biological Diversity, the American Bird Conservancy, SurfRider Foundation, Save Rio Grande Valley (Save RGV) and a cultural heritage organization, the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas.
The groups argue that the FAA should have conducted an in-depth environmental report, known as an environmental impact statement (EIS), before ever allowing SpaceX to move ahead with its Starship Super Heavy plans in Boca Chica.
They wrote, “The FAA failed to take the requisite hard look at the proposed project and has concluded that significant adverse effects will not occur due to purported mitigation measures.”
The plaintiffs argue that the agency waived the need for more thorough analysis based on proposed “environmental mitigations.” But the mitigations the FAA actually required of SpaceX were woefully insufficient to offset environmental damages from launch events, construction and increased traffic in the area, as well as “anomalies” like the destruction of the launch pad and mid-air explosion in April.
In their complaint, the attorneys note that the FAA’s own Chief of Staff for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in June 2020 said the agency was planning an EIS. Later, “based on…
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