Elon Musk, the sulphurous CEO of Twitter/X, Tesla and SpaceX, is currently reaping the fruit of his campaign in support of Donald Trump… and the federal agencies who put obstacles in his way had better do it stand. There Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), in particular, can expect an offensive from the tycoon with whom it maintains difficult relations.
To provide context, the FAA is one of the government agencies responsible for regulating a sector of activity throughout the United States – in this case, air traffic. It coordinates the routes of all civil aircraft and manages the movements of military aircraft. At the same time, it also has another prerogative which is becoming more and more important at the moment: supervising rocket launches and all associated activities. In this area, the FAA has considerable power. It conducts safety and environmental impact surveys, grants licenses and permits to operators, conducts in-depth investigations into possible problematic incidents, etc. In other words, all New Space players have an interest in remaining in its good graces.
Recurring frictions
Generally, the agency maintains cordial and constructive relations with launch operators. But there is one that stands out at this level, and not the least: SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. The richest man in the world has never hidden his taste for rapid progress. It is common knowledge that he prefers to push his companies to fail several times in a relatively short period of time to accelerate the innovation process at all costs. This reckless approach has undoubtedly contributed to the success of his company, which now dominates its industry head and shoulders. And the big man intends to continue his momentum. But it increasingly comes up against restrictions imposed by the FAA.
Indeed, the latter notoriously suffers from a very serious lack of staff. It has been struggling for several years to find employees to monitor air traffic. And these gaps have become even more pronounced since the explosion of private aerospace. The division of the agency which deals with this theme constantly has its head underwater, and this is manifested by Often very long processing times. Even if there are no problems, launch operators often have to wait several months to obtain the necessary authorizations to launch a rocket.
Obviously, this administrative sclerosis does not really please the hyperactive CEO of SpaceX, which wishes to increase technical tests and commercial flights. In recent years, he has regularly expressed his exasperation with the slowness of the agency’s procedures, which never move fast enough for his liking.
The Starship, the company’s revolutionary new mega-launcher, is a good example of this dynamic. On each of its test flights, SpaceX had to wait patiently for a flight license which often took a considerable time to be issued. She also had to juggle other regulatory imperatives, including a long investigation into the environmental impact of this metal giant – steps that greatly irritated Musk, the latter deeming them counterproductive.
Relations between the two entities have deteriorated further in recent months when the leader took the initiative of exempting himself from the agency’s procedures to launch two machines (a Falcon 9 and a Falcon Heavy) before obtaining the necessary authorizations. The FAA therefore launched a procedure aimed at imposing a fine on SpaceX. Musk, true to his reputation, responded by announcing his intention to counter-attack on legal grounds – a way of expressing his disagreement with what he considered to be excessive zeal.
A new cap full of implications
You will have understood, the entrepreneur is not the biggest fan of the FAA. Until now, he had no real way of influencing his decisions – but this balance of power will shift radically when Donald Trump returns to the White House. The camp of the newly elected Republican candidate announced its intention to appoint the tycoon as head of a new office, the Department of Government Efficiencywith a single objective: “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
In the current context, some FAA offices undoubtedly have concerns: it’s a safe bet that Musk will take great pleasure in dismantling some of the procedures that are holding back his company. At present, it is still too early to comment on the nature of these changes which remain hypothetical in any case. But Musk has already proven in the past that he is not afraid to make radical decisions, such as when he laid off a large part of Twitter’s workforce after buying the network. And with this new cap, he will probably be keen to hit hard from the start. We can therefore expect that he will not be lacy.
It will be appropriate to follow the first steps of the President’s new privileged advisor with particular attention, in particular because of the impact that his decisions could have on the activity of SpaceX and its other companies; we are probably in for four years full of twists and turns!
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