SpaceX’s plan to launch its monstrous Starship-Super Heavy two-stage tandem from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has drawn the attention — and concern — of two rival space companies who are warning federal officials that the 492-foot-tall rocket will be too untested, too dangerous and too potentially disruptive to the nation’s busiest spaceport and the surrounding environment.
United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, both of which have significant presences on the Space Coast and view SpaceX as a direct competitor, have submitted their concerns in writing to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA is preparing an environmental impact study to assess the potential impacts of launching Starships up to 44 times a year from KSC’s Launch Pad 39A. SpaceX is also considering a second Starship launch pad at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“As the largest rocket in existence, an accident would inflict severe, if not catastrophic, damage, while normal launch operations would have a cumulative impact on structures, launch vehicle hardware and other critical launch support equipment,” ULA officials wrote in a 22-page letter to the FAA.
ULA cited the April 2023 Starship explosion at SpaceX’s private launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, that sent debris flying a six-mile radius. On the Cape, ULA officials noted that their launch pad is just three miles from Pad 39A and that other companies are located nearby.
“If a similar accident occurs again, this debris could reach ULA facilities and could cause injury to people or damage to property. And with the increased liftoff thrust anticipated for Starship, debris from a similar launch failure could reach larger, more populated areas around KSC,” ULA’s letter said.
Blue Origin employs more than 2,700 full-time workers in Brevard County and has invested more than $1 billion to develop the world’s first privately built heavy-lift launch complex for future rocket liftoffs from New Glenn.
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In a three-page letter to the FAA, Blue Origin officials proposed limiting the rate of Starship-Super Heavy launches and landings “to a number that has minimal impact on the local environment, local personnel, and the local community.”
And ULA urged the government to consider an alternative to allowing SpaceX to bring Starship to KSC: keeping the giant rocket in Boca Chica, where it currently is.
SpaceX media representatives did not respond to messages seeking comment for this article.
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In the days following these FAA comments from its competitors, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk took to X to say just two words: “Continue Origin.” Some media outlets have portrayed these comments about Starship’s environmental study as a battle between billionaires, including Musk and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
However, Don Platt, director of the Spaceport Education Center at the Florida Institute of Technology in Titusville, said, “If a large company has the opportunity to complain about one of its competitors in an open public forum, then they’re probably going to do it.”
“You have to look at the source. They’re not going to want to just hand over the keys to the space industry to SpaceX. And right now, that seems to be really what’s happening,” Platt said.
“And it’s not really due to any injustice on the part of the government or anything like that. It’s just that SpaceX is working. They’re doing their job. They’re successful. And Blue Origin and ULA are both struggling to keep up,” he said.
Aside from the potential Starship missions, SpaceX rockets have powered 46 of the Space Coast’s 49 orbital launches this year. ULA has logged the other three launches, while Blue Origin officials hope to begin launching New Glenn rockets by the end of the year.
The three space companies are competing for NASA contracts. Tensions between SpaceX and Blue Origin escalated after NASA selected Starship to land humans on the moon with the Artemis program. Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA, further claiming that Starship is “extremely complex and high-risk.”
By 2023, NASA was able to add a second human landing system for Artemis. NASA has selected Blue Origin’s Blue Moon to land astronauts on the Moon alongside Starship on future missions.
Blue Origin and ULA warn of spacecraft dangers
The FAA is currently preparing Starship’s environmental impact statement as part of its licensing process to authorize future launches from KSC. Separately, the U.S. Air Force is conducting an environmental review of SpaceX’s goal of bringing Starship-Super Heavy liftoffs to Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station by 2026.
In their letters to the FAA, Blue Origin and ULA warned of a range of dangers associated with Starship. Among the companies’ concerns:
- Starship-Super Heavy’s operations are expected to have a greater environmental impact than any launch system operating on the Space Coast, Blue Origin said, noting that the two-stage rocket “can hold up to 5,200 tons of liquid methane for propulsion, a record.”
- Landing boosters on Pad 39A, rather than using drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, “shifts the risks of system failure to the communities, businesses and environment surrounding KSC,” ULA said.
- Blue Origin has expressed concerns about the safety of its employees and assets in the event of an anomaly, citing concerns about debris dispersal, blast overpressure, sonic booms, explosions, fires, noise, airborne toxins and hazardous materials.
- Disruption to other launch providers. “SpaceX seeks to frequently launch the largest rocket ever from two launch sites within a six-mile radius. A single Starship launch site has the potential to disrupt other launch operations in the area and have significant environmental impacts,” ULA said.
Local residents also express environmental concerns about Starship
FAA officials accepted public comments on Starship through June 24 and also heard from the Brevard groups. The federal agency held public open houses in mid-June at the Raddison Resort at Cape Canaveral Harbor and the KSC Visitor Complex. The project website is at faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship_ksc
In a letter to the FAA, Merritt Island Wildlife Association President Charlie Venuto welcomed the repurposing of Pad 39A for Starship, particularly over the option of building a new launch complex on undeveloped KSC property.
However, Titusville-based MIWA argues that the FAA’s environmental study should address a range of environmental ramifications of Starship, such as:
- Quality of the stormwater management system to protect the ecologically threatened Indian River Lagoon.
- Impacts of artificial lighting on nesting sea turtles, migratory and nesting birds and nocturnal fauna.
- Cumulative effects on air quality, damage to the stratospheric ozone layer, habitat destruction, ability to practice conservation management techniques such as controlled burns, and carbon emissions, taking into account Blue Origin’s upcoming New Glenn rockets.
In a 10-page letter, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge officials noted that the environmental studies for KSC and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station “appear to be linked actions that are being considered separately, making both impact analyses, including cumulative impacts, less effective and less comprehensive and requiring substantial cross-integration between the two.”
The Southeastern Fisheries Association said it supports national defense and space exploration efforts. That said, the group wants the FAA’s study to encompass the physical, social and economic impacts of Starship on all stakeholders, including fishing families, local communities, businesses, restaurants, lodging establishments and Florida’s tourism industry.
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Phil Metzger is director of the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research & Education at the University of Central Florida. In an email, he said he believes ULA’s statement about Starship is fair because it asks the FAA to do its job while considering potential impacts on the environment, nearby communities and other companies’ launch operations at the Cape.
“They stressed that it is in the national interest to have multiple healthy launch companies to ensure access to space, so that the activities of one company should not put out of business its competitors. I think all of that is legitimate and should be emphasized,” Metzger said.
He said, however, that he believed Blue Origin made “a serious mistake” in suggesting a cap on Starship’s launch rate.
“It would be the least creative and least useful solution to the Cape’s potential problems,” Metzger said.
“Space is becoming increasingly important to the world, to national security and to economic prosperity, and the United States needs to increase the pace of launches – from all providers – not create caps that will ultimately hurt all companies and the nation as a whole,” he said.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or X: @brookeofstars.
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