Last week, the California Coastal Commission rejected a plan for SpaceX to launch up to 50 rockets this year at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The company responded yesterday with a lawsuit, alleging that the state agency’s denial was overreaching its authority and discriminating against its CEO.
The Commission’s goal is to protect California’s coasts and beaches, as well as the animals living in them. The agency has control over private companies’ requests to use the state coastline, but it can’t deny activities by federal departments. The denied launch request was actually made by the US Space Force on behalf of SpaceX, asking that the company be allowed to launch 50 of its Falcon 9 rockets, up from 36.
While the commissioners did raise concerns about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s political screed and the spotty safety records at his companies during their review of the launch request, the assessment focused on the relationship between SpaceX and Space Force. The Space Force case is that “because it is a customer of — and reliant on — SpaceX’s launches and satellite network, SpaceX launches are a federal agency activity,” the Commission review stated. “However, this does not align with how federal agency activities are defined in the Coastal Zone Management Act’s regulations or the manner in the Commission has historically implemented those regulations.” The California Coastal Commission claimed that at least 80 percent of the SpaceX rockets contain payloads for Musk’s Starlink company rather than payloads for government clients.
The SpaceX suit filed with the Central District of California court is seeking an order to designate the launches as federal activity, which would cut the Commission’s oversight out of its future launch plans.
