FAA, SpaceX at Odds Over Intervening in NEPA Suit

The FAA and SpaceX disagree about the space launch company's intervening on behalf of defendant FAA in a lawsuit challenging the agency's approval of SpaceX commercial launch operations. In reply Friday supporting its motion to intervene (docket 1:23-cv-01204), SpaceX told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia it met the minimal showing needed to demonstrate its interests might not be adequately represented by the existing parties. SpaceX said its interests and those of the FAA overlap in defending the FAA's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review of SpaceX's Texas launches, but the FAA's obligation is to the American people and not necessarily to SpaceX, and the FAA could take positions during the case that don't align with SpaceX's. In response earlier this month to SpaceX's motion to intervene, the FAA said it didn't have a position on SpaceX being a permissive intervenor in the case but challenged SpaceX's claim it can intervene since the FAA's interests are potentially out of alignment with the company's. It said that concern isn't relevant because the case is narrowly about the adequacy of the FAA's NEPA analysis. Environmental groups and allies are suing the FAA over the agency's approval of SpaceX launches in Texas and their alleged ecological consequences (see 2305010055).