After spending years at its South Texas Starbase, SpaceX may be relocating its Starship rocket tests to Florida due to environmental reviews slowing the process down, according to reports.
The Starship project has made leaps and bounds in the past few years, with SpaceX successfully launching and landing the Starship rocket to be reused. But, despite this success, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared that his plan for Starship in 2022 is to have the rocket complete an orbital flight.
However, flight safety regulators may decide that more environmental reviews are needed at the Texas Starbase site before Starship's first orbital flight can take place. Because of this, Musk and SpaceX might consider launching Starship from a pad in Florida instead of Texas.
The relocation would be to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida instead of the Texas Starbase, where Starship has made its mark on the space industry.
An orbital flight would be the crowning achievement for the rocket and could carry out implications for the future of the company and where it conducts its business, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Suppose the Federal Aviation Administration were to require more environmental reviews. In that case, some think that the Texas Starbase would only be used for research and development with launches taking place in Florida.
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Musk has shared that Starship and reusable rockets are the future of space travel, and NASA has even selected it to land astronauts on the moon by 2025. Plans could even have the rocket take travelers to Mars.
However, before any of this is possible, it must first be tested in orbit, something SpaceX has yet to accomplish, only going as high as 18 miles.
The orbital test mission still needs to be approved by the FAA, which controls the environmental assessment of the company's proposals. This includes possible damage to wetlands in the Boca Chica, Texas area, noise pollution, and impacts on wildlife, the Journal reported.
Musk shared in a presentation on Feb. 10 that if the FAA were to require a more extensive environmental assessment, it would take too much time, resulting in them using a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, which they already have permission to use.
The FAA has shared that it will release its environmental review on March 28, which will then determine where Starship testing will continue.
"We don't have a ton of insight into where things stand with the FAA," Musk said on Feb. 10. "We have gotten sort of a rough indication that there may be an approval in March, but that's all we know."
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