The Federal Aviation Administration has levied a fine against aerospace corporation SpaceX to the tune of $633,009, with Mike Whitaker, the FAA’s administrator, stating that SpaceX must “operate at the highest level of safety.” The fines, which were made public on Sept. 17, are a result of two launches that were performed by SpaceX last year, one in June and one in July.
According to the FAA, the June launch violated license requirements on two separate occasions as the SpaceX team used a control room that was not approved by the FAA and did not perform a launch status poll, where various flight systems are examined to determine whether they are ready for the launch. The company proceeded with the launch despite being told by the FAA that they would not yet approve the new control room and that the company could not forgo the readiness poll during the countdown.
The FAA alleges that, a month later, a July launch saw the usage of an unapproved rocket propellant farm. The company still proceeded with the launch despite once again being told not to by the FAA.
SpaceX, along with their CEO, Elon Musk, have denied the allegations, with Musk claiming they were imposed for “petty matters.”
This is not the first time in recent memory that fines were pushed upon SpaceX by the FAA. In 2023, the administration fined the company for not submitting some safety data before a Starlink satellite launch the year prior, totaling around $175,000.
The FAA has also regularly clashed with Musk over safety procedures. In January 2021, Musk claimed their regulations were “fundamentally broken” after the FAA refused to approve a test launch for the company. The test launch would have come a month after the SN8 prototype launch, which took place in Dec. 2020, and would have featured an SN9 rocket.
The SN8 had launched successfully but failed to properly land, instead colliding with the earth and exploding. The SN9 eventually launched in Feb. 2021, though it met the same fate as the SN8 as it failed to slow down and turn vertically before it collided with the ground and subsequently exploded.
