The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun an environmental review of SpaceX’s Starbase expansion proposal, which would allow substantially more launches and landings each year at the Texas site.
SpaceX’s current authorization sets annual limits of 25 launches and 50 landings. The existing landing allowance is divided evenly between Starship and Super Heavy, with 25 landings for each.
The proposal sets out two phases for increasing activity. The first would allow up to 100 launches and 200 landings annually, with a separate cap for each type of operation.
In a later phase, the proposed annual ceilings would rise to 456 launches and 912 landings. Launches in that phase would be limited to weekdays. The higher limits remain a proposal and have not been approved.
The FAA has scheduled public meetings on the review for Nov. 17-19. The public scoping period closes Nov. 30.
