SpaceX's first test flight of Starship sparks lawsuit, future development faces uncertainty

According to news on May 23, Tesla, Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) became co-defendants in an environmental lawsuit filed by a US environmental organization. The lawsuit stems from the fact that SpaceX exploded in mid-air during its first test flight of the world's largest rocket, Starship, last month.

According to ITBEAR Technology Information, in a motion filed with the court last Friday, SpaceX asked federal judge Carl Nichols to allow the company to become a co-defendant with the FAA to deal with environmental and cultural heritage The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the FAA earlier this month.

The Center for Biological Diversity claims the FAA should conduct a more in-depth environmental assessment of the possible impacts of SpaceX's launch activities before approving the launch of the world's largest rocket from Starbase near Brownsville, Texas. They also noted that the "mitigations" provided by SpaceX were insufficient to avoid "significant adverse impacts" to endangered species, their habitats, and indigenous tribes in the area.

In the filing, SpaceX explained the potential impact that a victory by environmentalists could have on the company, both business and financial. The company argued that the move would undermine the significant national and scientific benefits that Starship could bring.

The FAA is required to provide an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to the Center for Biological Diversity. SpaceX’s Starship development in Texas could be stalled for years because of the lengthy process.

In its motion, SpaceX mentioned that the FAA is a government agency and cannot fully represent its interests. The FAA said it had no comment.

SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Brett Johansen issued a statement alongside the filing of the motion detailing the damage to the company if it loses the lawsuit. SpaceX has invested more than $3 billion in Starbase facilities and Starship systems since 2014, he noted.

Johnson highlighted Starship's important future missions, which include contracts to transport NASA astronauts to the moon and commercial customer missions. In addition, the Starlink satellite Internet business owned by SpaceX is also extremely important to the Starship.

It is worth mentioning that during the first test flight of the Starship, the rocket lost multiple engines during the flight, causing serious damage to the launch site and causing environmental problems such as fires and the spread of particulate matter. Scientists are studying the environmental impact of Starship test flights and explosions.

Despite facing lawsuits and technical challenges, SpaceX still believes that Starship will provide unprecedented opportunities for science. Scientists can use the huge payload capacity of the interstellar spacecraft to carry out tasks that were previously difficult to complete, and complete scientific inquiry and exploration in the fastest and easiest way.

To sum up, SpaceX and the FAA became joint defendants. While facing environmental lawsuits, they also emphasized the significant national and scientific interests of the Starship. SpaceX's business and finances could be significantly affected by the outcome of future lawsuits, potentially causing further development of Starship to be delayed.

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