SpaceX threatened with $175,000 fine for Starlink crash risk paperwork blunder SpaceX may be fined $175,000 by America's Federal Aviation Administration for failing to hand over collision risk documents before it flew a group of Starlink satellites into space last year. The administration claimed SpaceX did not submit "launch collision analysis trajectory data'' prior to the launch of the Starlink Group …
While that certainly seems likely, are you suggesting that had the document been present it would have been analyzed and challenged for error in less than 7 days? I would have thought it's complete absence could have been readily analyzed and challenged even quicker. Given that didn't happen, my confidence in actually evaluating such a document in time to be of any use is somewhere very close to zero.
The FAA can notice a launch without complete documentation very quickly. They can take months to find out exactly why a document was missing and longer to decide what to do about it. During that time I would expect people outside the FAA and SpaceX to hear absolutely nothing. I am surprised it took only 6 months for this information to become public.
"An enforcement letter addressed to SpaceX said the maximum civil penalty for flouting its rules is $262,666, according to CNBC. Officials at the administration, however, proposed a lower fine after reviewing the case in more detail."
So they failed to file the paperwork, but they're sorry? Is that why a fine is almost halved? It's wither a violation, or it isn't. Or did Elon present a 50% off Federal Fine Coupon?
The fine level is chosen by the enforcing organization, up to the cap. They likely reserve the highest fines for things like repeat offenses or ones where they've had less cooperation. I'm not sure if they've had to fine them for this specifically before, but that might be why the fine isn't set at the maximum.
Can we just arrest musk now? All of his firms (SpaceX, Starlink, Twitter, Neuralink, ...) breach federal regulations regularly, bad mouth the authorities when they get court, and are just generally bad "citizens". Obviously that sort of attitude has to come from the Top, so I think it's time to start hitting the man at the top with some jail time, and watch how quickly things change...
The reason for the delay was to work out what went wrong and how to stop it from happening again. Last time this happened (in Boca Chica) the FAA decided that no-one at SpaceX had the ability to work out if the paperwork was complete while also having the authority to delay a test fire/launch. Although there was a fine, the important part of the judgement was that Starbase would not get another launch licence until that got fixed. Presumably there is some change to the process at SpaceX that we cannot see that satisfies the FAA, and the fine resembles the cost of the investigation.
Although the FAA could impose a punitive fine, the cost would go to US tax payers via the next NASA/Space Force launch and nothing constructive would be achieved.
I think your replying to the wrong post as I made no mention of the delay in the fine rather the size of the fine.
Your reason for them not getting a punitive fine is an odd one as that reason could be used by any one. The fine is only going to be paid by someesle when we put the price up.
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