The FAA releases preliminary report on Boca Chica launches, and it’s not horrible

Photograph from beneath a giant rocket component.

Enlarge / SpaceX’s Booster four is lifted onto its orbital launch mount in South Texas. (credit score: Elon Musk/Twitter)

The Federal Aviation Administration launched a draft environmental overview of SpaceX’s plans for orbital launches from South Texas on Friday, kicking off a 30-day public remark interval.

The long-awaited procedural step is the primary of a number of regulatory hurdles that SpaceX should clear earlier than acquiring remaining permission to launch its Tremendous Heavy booster and Starship higher stage from a web site close to Boca Chica, Texas. Such a launch doubtless stays months away, however it now seems that the feds will finally greenlight South Texas for orbital launches. That appeared removed from assured earlier than in the present day.

The doc, formally known as a Draft Programmatic Environmental Evaluation, evaluates the potential environmental impacts of SpaceX’s Starship program, together with launch and reentry. It additionally critiques particles restoration, the combination tower and different launch-related building, and native street closures between Brownsville and Boca Chica seaside.

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