The Federal Aviation Administration announced plans to fine SpaceX more than $633,000 for violating its launch licenses twice in 2023. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he will fight the ruling in court.

The FAA announced on September 17 that it had notified SpaceX of a proposed $633,009 fine for violating the terms of its launch licenses for the Satria-1 broadband satellite (or PSN Satria) for a June 2023 Falcon 9 launch and the Jupiter-24 Jupiter-3 broadband satellite for a July 2023 Falcon Heavy launch. Both launches were successful.

In its enforcement notice to the company regarding the Satria-1 launch, the FAA said SpaceX requested changes to its communications plan to allow for the use of a new launch control center at the company’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy in May 2023. Go to the Space Center and skip the launch controllers’ briefing two hours before liftoff.

The FAA told SpaceX shortly before the scheduled launch that it would not be able to approve these changes and replace the license in time, but the enforcement notice did not specify why. SpaceX went ahead and used the Hangar X control center and skipped the “T-2 hour” survey for the launch.

The agency found that it violated two conditions of its launch license, each carrying a fine of up to $283,009. The FAA said it plans to fine SpaceX a total of $350,000 for that launch.

A month later, SpaceX launched the Jupiter-3 Falcon Heavy, but nine days before launch, the company applied to amend its launch license to allow it to use the new RP-1 fuel tank farm at KSC’s 39A launch complex, according to the administrator’s letter.

The FAA told SpaceX two days before the scheduled launch that the agency could not replace the license in time, but SpaceX used the new tank farm for the launch anyway. The agency said it proposed imposing a maximum fine of $283,009 on SpaceX for the violation.

“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including our legal responsibility to oversee the safety of companies that hold commercial space transportation licenses,” FAA general counsel Mark Nichols said in a statement. “Any company’s failure to comply with safety requirements will have consequences.”

SpaceX has 30 days to respond to both incidents, with the opportunity to participate in an “informal conference call” with the agency’s lawyers and provide information to explain what happened. But Musk suggested that SpaceX would sue the FAA instead of using those administrative procedures. wrote He is also on X, a social media platform that he owns.

Elsewhere, Musk claimed that the penalties were the FAA’s “law” against SpaceX. “I’m pretty sure the statement would show wrongdoing, politically motivated behavior by the FAA,” he claimed, but offered no evidence to support his claim.

In another post, Musk appeared confused by the FAA’s authority. “Surprisingly Starliner isn’t penalizing Boeing!” he wrote. “The FAA’s space division is going after SpaceX for non-safety related nonsense and giving Boeing a free ride even after NASA concluded their spacecraft weren’t safe enough to send astronauts back.”

For commercial crewed missions like the Starliner Crew Flight Test mission, crew safety is the responsibility of NASA, not the FAA. “The FAA works with NASA on these missions and is responsible for public safety through the commercial space licensing process, while NASA is responsible for crew safety,” the FAA said.

The “learning period” also limits the FAA’s ability to impose safety regulations on spaceflight participants. Established in late 2004, the period has been extended several times and currently runs through the end of 2024. The FAA has limited authority to regulate the safety of aircrews so that they can operate a vehicle and not cause harm to the public.

The latest proposed fines are not the first the FAA has imposed on SpaceX. In February 2023, the FAA issued a similar notice to SpaceX for violating the terms of its Falcon 9 Starlink launch license six months earlier. In that case, SpaceX failed to provide launch impact trajectory analysis data at least seven days prior to launch, as required by the terms of its license. The FAA proposed a fine of $175,000.

SpaceX also faces fines from another agency related to the launch of Starship at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Sept. 10 that it would fine SpaceX $148,378 for violating Clean Water Act requirements. The fine covers the unauthorized discharge of wastewater from the launch sprinkler system onto the site, as well as a separate earlier incident in which the company dumped liquid oxygen into protected wetlands at the site.

The EPA said the proposed fine was the result of an “agreement” with SpaceX, which is open to public comment until Oct. 21.