The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), on Tuesday (May 6), released its final environmental assessment (EA) of Starship operations at Texas’ newest city, Starbase, which is the SpaceX facility near Brownsville, Texas. The good news is that the assesment resulted in SpaceX receiving permission to ramp up launches of its Starship megarocket by a factor of five, to 25 from South Texas.
It also permits up to 25 landings at the site annually by each of Starship’s two stages, the giant booster called Super Heavy and the upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or ‘Ship’.
“After reviewing and analyzing this Final Tiered EA, including all available data and information on existing conditions and potential impacts, the FAA has determined that modifying SpaceX’s vehicle operator license supporting the increased launch and landing cadence of the Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment within the meaning of NEPA,” the FAA wrote in a newly released 53-page document called a Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Record of Decision (ROD). (NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act.)