Following criticism from Congress and aviation industry representatives, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has defended its approach to space launch licensing, and particularly its collaboration with SpaceX.

Earlier, SpaceX received an estimate from the FAA regarding the date of issuance of the license for the fifth launch, according to which the next test flight of the Starship system was postponed two months from the planned date (mid-September). This caused outrage.

U.S. officials said separately the other day that the FAA license for Starship’s June prelaunch allowed multiple flights using the same spacecraft profile and launch vehicle. But SpaceX changed the profile for the next launch and did not provide information on the environmental impact until mid-August.

Management representatives emphasized that within the framework of the fifth Starship flight, the tests will cover a wider area than before. This requires consultation with other departments. Therefore, the main obstacles to licensing a new enterprise were environmental expertise and safety assessment.