{"id":569882,"date":"2026-02-06T06:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/569882\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T06:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:26:12","slug":"faa-approves-starship-launches-from-lc-39a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/569882\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA approves Starship launches from LC-39A"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Federal Aviation Administration has approved plans for Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Launch Complex 39A as SpaceX shifts Falcon 9 launches away from the historic pad.<\/p>\n

The FAA publicly released Jan. 30 a final environmental impact statement and record of decision<\/a> for SpaceX\u2019s proposal to conduct Starship launches and landings at LC-39A. SpaceX sought approval for up to 44 Starship-Super Heavy launches from the site and 88 landings, 44 each for the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage.<\/p>\n

The agency concluded that the \u201cPreferred Alternative,\u201d which allows the launches and landings, offered benefits that outweighed impacts such as noise and disruptions to air traffic compared with a \u201cNo Action Alternative\u201d that would not permit the operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe undersigned finds that the No Action Alternative would result in restrictive licensing that would impede the FAA\u2019s ability to assist the commercial space transportation industry in meeting projected demand for services and expansion in new markets,\u201d the record of decision stated. The document was signed by Katie Cranor, executive director of the Office of Operational Safety in the FAA\u2019s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Preferred Alternative, in contrast, would allow the greatest development and growth of the U.S. commercial space launch industry and aids the FAA\u2019s statutory mission,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

The final environmental impact statement closely resembles a draft released in mid-2025. That draft generated extensive public comment during in-person and virtual hearings<\/a>, with concerns raised about launch noise, sonic booms during reentry and airspace closures that could delay flights by up to two hours at several major Florida airports.<\/p>\n

The final statement notes that while some noise mitigation measures are available, \u201csignificant effects associated with the proposed action are unavoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe integration of Starship launches, booster landings, and reentries into the National Airspace System would significantly impact air traffic,\u201d the EIS stated. \u201cThe FAA would manage such operations in a way that minimizes disruption to existing aviation operations and ensures safety for all airspace users,\u201d including the use of \u201cenhanced real-time communication systems and well-defined scheduling and deconfliction procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FAA\u2019s decision clears the way for SpaceX to complete Starship launch infrastructure at LC-39A and prepare for its first launch from the site, potentially later this year. At the Space Mobility conference in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 28, Col. Brian Chatman, commander of Space Launch Delta 45, said he expected the first Starship launch from LC-39A to take place in late summer or fall.<\/p>\n

As SpaceX prepares to bring Starship operations to LC-39A, the company is scaling back Falcon 9 use of the pad. The most recent Falcon 9 launch from LC-39A occurred Dec. 17. All seven Falcon 9 launches from Florida so far in 2026 have used nearby Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, we\u2019re planning to launch most of our Falcon 9 missions from Space Launch Complex 40. That will include all Dragon missions,\u201d said Lee Echerd, a SpaceX senior mission manager, during a NASA briefing Jan. 30 about the upcoming Crew-12 mission, which will launch from SLC-40.<\/p>\n

That shift, he said, \u201cwill allow our Cape team to focus 39A on Falcon Heavy launches and, hopefully, our first Starship launches later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Federal Aviation Administration has approved plans for Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Launch Complex…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":569883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85331,71873,159,16988,783,14884,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-569882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-faa-office-of-commercial-space-transportation","9":"tag-ksc","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-sn","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-starship","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116022266265790546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}