“President Trump has signed an order to make it easier for private companies to launch rockets in the US. It directs the Department of Transportation to speed up or eliminate environmental reviews for launches and reentries, roll back certain FAA rules, and set up a quicker process for approving new activities like refueling spacecraft in orbit,” notes The Doomslayer.
“U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches, a move that could benefit Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other private space ventures.
Trump’s order, among other things, directs the U.S. transportation secretary to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch licenses administered by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said in a statement.
The declaration also calls on the secretary to do away with “outdated, redundant or overly restrictive rules for launch and reentry vehicles.”
“Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of U.S. companies to lead in global space markets,” the executive order states….
SpaceX easily leads all U.S. space industry entities, including NASA, in the sheer number of launches it routinely conducts for its own satellite network, the U.S. space agency, the Pentagon, and other enterprises.
Jeff Bezos’ private rocket company Blue Origin and its space tourism business could also gain from a more relaxed regulatory regime.
Musk has repeatedly complained that environmental impact studies, post-flight mishap investigations and licensing reviews required by the FAA have needlessly slowed testing of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, under development at the company’s South Texas launch facility.
Last year, SpaceX brought four American and Russian astronauts back to Earth after they were trapped in space for eight months.
SpaceX is much more competent and efficient than NASA. A SpaceX launch costs about $62 million, but a NASA launch costs about $2 billion.
“The California government denied an Air Force request to allow Elon Musk’s SpaceX to increase its California rocket launches, citing Musk’s politics,” such as his posts on social media, reported The Independent.
Last year, Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink disclosed that its experimental implant to restore vision to blind people received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “breakthrough device” designation. One hopes it will eventually receive FDA approval.
The FDA can take many years to approve medical devices and drugs. The FDA didn’t approve a home test for HIV until 24 years after it first received an application. According to an FDA advisory committee, the test held “the potential to prevent the transmission of more than 4,000 new HIV infections in its first year of use alone.” That means thousands of people likely got infected with AIDS as a result of the delay in approving it. At least a hundred thousand people died waiting years for the FDA to approve beta blockers.
