The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and SpaceX are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and an Native American nation that wants Starship/Super Heavy rocket launches from the Starbase spaceport in Texas suspended until a new environmental review of the area is conducted.

SpaceX has filed a motion in US Federal District Court to intervene as a defendant in a lawsuit that environmental groups filed against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in an attempt to void the agency’s approval for the company to launch Starship/Super Heavy rockets from Boca Chica, Texas.

A group of five environmental and cultural-heritage non-profits has sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claiming the agency broke environmental law when it approved SpaceX’s Starbase spaceport for launches of the company’s Starship/Super Heavy rocket.

The question of whether SpaceX’s Starship maiden launch last Thursday was a success or a failure is a matter of perspective.

SpaceX’s massive Starship/Super Heavy rocket failed just under four minutes into its maiden flight on Thursday, resulting in a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast.

On April 17, 2023 SpaceX scrubbed the maiden flight test of its Starship/Super Heavy booster due to a pressurization issue with the first stage. SpaceX has announced that the next attempt will be made on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

SpaceX test fired 31 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy rocket in a major test of the company’s Starlink super-heavy booster program. The test was a key milestone toward an orbit flight test that could take place in March.

Down at Starbase in Texas, SpaceX completed a “flight-like wet dress rehearsal” by filling Starship and its Super Heavy Booster with propellants for the first time.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO and President Mike Sievert will unveil how the two companies are working to increase connectivity on Thursday night. Details are vague, but it most likely involves cooperation between SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband network and T-Mobile’s cellular phone network. The presentation will take place at 8 p.m. EDT from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas. The event will be livestreamed on SpaceX.com.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Of the six launches known to be scheduled to close out August, there’s only one – Artemis I — that truly matters in any real sense. The others will be duly recorded but little remembered in what could be the busiest launch year in human history.