SpaceX Regulatory Discussion Thread

[favo]

Permitting Dashboard for SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Launch Vehicle Program at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas. Shows 2 of 5 processes completed. Estimated completion date 2022-03-28.

 

[spacerfc]

Just another example of regulatory overreach, in case people still believe regulator is always right:

House committee leaders ask White House to withdraw proposed NTSB regulations on commercial launch investigations

The leaders of the House Science Committee have asked the White House to withdraw a controversial proposed rule regarding commercial launch investigations.

spacenews.com

The leaders of the House Science Committee have asked the Biden administration to withdraw a controversial proposed rule regarding commercial spaceflight investigations, calling it “plainly unlawful.”

In an April 6 letter to President Biden, Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Science Committee, called on the administration to withdraw proposed regulations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that would give the board new authority to investigate launch failures.

If you don't push back against these over-regulation, you'll be on the menu so to speak.

Also note the current NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy is anti-Tesla and anti-FSD.

 

[bxr140]

Just another example of regulatory overreach, in case people still believe regulator is always right:

While its worth noting that most [significant] things in this world benefit from third party oversight to some degree or another, its unfortunate that state entities don't understand...or more likely don't trust other state entities to perform said oversight.

In this case, there's already SIGNIFICANT oversight/regulation of spaceflight anomalies, commercial or otherwise. If something goes wrong with a rocket, that launch provider is immediately saddled with 1) 1001 questions from the directly affected customer and--probably more importantly--their insurance underwriters, 2) 1001 questions from down-manifest customers that want to make sure their *sugar* is successful--success on which their very for-profit business models are based, and 3) 1001 questions from Range Safety--whose decision makers are classic stick-in-the-mud legacy space graybeards, and whose job it is to certify an operation for flight in the first place.

 

[Grendal]

Agencies studying safety issues of LOX/methane launch vehicles

Three U.S. government agencies are undertaking studies to examine the safety issues associated with launch vehicles that use liquid oxygen and methane.

spacenews.com

 

[JB47394]

Agencies studying safety issues of LOX/methane launch vehicles

Three U.S. government agencies are undertaking studies to examine the safety issues associated with launch vehicles that use liquid oxygen and methane.

spacenews.com

NASA is looking into the explosive potential of a methane and oxygen mix. I guess nobody ever did before.

“It’s really to try and understand what, if any, mitigations we need to do for some of the adjacent launch pads,” said Tonya McNair, deputy associate administrator for management in NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.

 

[scaesare]

Interesting. I'd certainly suspect the issues surrounding the difficulty of dealing with H2 to more problematic, and the energy potentential by mass is also higher:

	Heat value
Hydrogen (H2)	120-142 MJ/kg
Methane (CH4)	50-55 MJ/kg