(Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
A lawsuit from Elon Musk will try to prevent a California commission from regulating future Falcon 9 rocket launches as his company SpaceX looks to send up more Starlink satellites into Earth’s orbit.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk carried out his threat to sue the California Coastal Commission after it rejected a proposal to increase Falcon 9 launches from 36 to 50 at the US military Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Some Commission members voted to deny, citing Musk’s political activities, which have included supporting Donald Trump and criticizing federal regulators including FEMA, the FAA and the FCC. In response, Musk vowed to fight back with a lawsuit, arguing the California commission had violated the First Amendment by using his political comments as grounds for the denial.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a US district court in California, goes on to accuse the commission of showing “overt, and shocking, political bias,” citing comments various officials made during last Thursday’s vote to deny increasing the Falcon 9 launches.
In addition, the lawsuit says: “The Commission’s decision interferes with the operations of the national space launch program conducted at a US Air Force base.”
The California Coastal Commission declined to respond to Musk’s lawsuit threat. But the legal battle could affect future Starlink satellite launches within the state. That’s because SpaceX wants to eventually request increasing the Falcon 9 flights to 100 per year.
The increased launches promise to help SpaceX deploy more satellites for both Starlink and Starshield, the company’s satellite internet system for US national security. But on the flip side, the heightened rocket activity will likely spark concerns about damage to the local environment and wildlife, which the California Coastal Commission works to prevent.
Although the commission decided to block increasing the Falcon 9 launches to 50 for this year, it’s possible the US military could intervene and override last Thursday’s vote, forcing the California regulator to pursue mediation or a lawsuit instead.