The California Coastal Commission last week rejected SpaceX’s plan to launch up to 50 rockets this year from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The company responded yesterday with a lawsuit, arguing that the state’s refusal exceeded its authority and discriminated against its CEO.
The commission’s goal is to protect California’s coasts and beaches and the animals that live there. The agency manages requests from private companies to use the state’s coastline, but it cannot negate the actions of federal authorities. The rejected launch request was actually made by the U.S. Space Force on behalf of SpaceX, asking the company to allow 36 to 50 launches of its Falcon 9 rockets.
Commissioners expressed concerns about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s political beliefs and his company’s poor safety record during their review of the launch request, but the review focused on SpaceX’s relationship with the Space Force. was guessed. The Space Force’s lawsuit states that “SpaceX launches are federal agency activities because the Space Force is a customer of and depends on SpaceX’s launch and satellite network,” the committee’s review states. . “However, this is inconsistent with how the Coastal Zone Management Act’s regulations define federal agency activities, or with the way the Commission has historically implemented these regulations,” the California Coastal Commission said. , claimed that at least 80 percent of SpaceX rockets contain payloads meant for Musk’s Starlink company, rather than payloads for government customers.
The SpaceX lawsuit, filed in California Central District Court, seeks an order designating the launch as a federal activity, which would remove the commission’s oversight of future launch programs.
