BLASTING OFF

SpaceX Weighs In on Environmental Case Against FAA Over Starship Launch

Elon Musk’s company wants to be a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

SpaceX is poised to join the Federal Aviation Administration as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups in the wake of a failed rocket launch last month. Elon Musk’s company has come under scrutiny after it launched Starship—the biggest rocket ever assembled—in Texas, with the concrete launchpad being blown to bits and the spacecraft itself exploding shortly after liftoff. The plaintiffs sued the FAA, alleging that the aerospace regulator should have carried out a more extensive environmental study on the possible impacts of the launch before it was permitted to go ahead. They also claimed that the “mitigations” that the FAA required of SpaceX failed to avoid “significant adverse effects to endangered species and their habitats in the area, along with tribes who consider the land sacred.” On Friday, SpaceX filed a motion to join the case as a defendant, saying that if the court ruled against the FAA, the decision could cause “severe injury to SpaceX’s business.”