SpaceX, Blue Origin could start launching soon OK with a few environmental regulations
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) and Mission Extension Pods (MEPs) launches from the Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 21, 2026.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
The Trump administration said on Tuesday it would waive what it called “unnecessary environmental rules and regulations” to speed up the approval process for rocket launches and re-entry.
The proposed rule by the Federal Aviation Administration will be a boon for Elon Musk SpaceX and Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, and other rocket launch companies.
The FAA rule would allow the agency to waive requirements imposed on certain commercial premises licenses and permits under 13 laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, parts of both the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Mammal Protection Act.
“Requirements necessary to protect public health and safety, property, national security, or US foreign policy interests will not be affected” under the proposed rule, the US Department of Transportation said in a statement. The FAA is part of the DOT.
The DOT said that despite the growing number of commercial space projects approved by the FAA in recent years, “applicants face unreasonable, time-consuming and costly requirements for preparing environmental studies and providing information for extensive reviews from multiple agencies.”
There were a record 205 commercial jobs approved by the FAA in fiscal year 2025, and the agency’s commercial status forecasts up to 4,288 projects over the next decade, according to the FAA.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in May that SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told him that his company aims to launch 10,000 programs annually for the next five years, Reuters reported at the time. Bedford warned “we need to see a lot of credibility” for that to happen.
The move to ease regulations on private sector launches comes nearly a year after President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Allowing Competition in the Commercial Real Estate Industry.”
That order directed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to “end or expedite” his environmental department’s review of space launches and re-entry licenses.
“America won the first space race, and we can do it again — but only if we remove the red tape,” Duffy said in a statement Tuesday announcing the FAA’s proposed rule.
“That’s why President Trump has charged USDOT with opening the final frontier and re-establishing United States dominance in space,” Duffy said.
The proposed rule is subject to a 30-day public comment period.
The DOT said the FAA will “carefully review all relevant comments before issuing a final rule.”
SpaceX, Elon Musk and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposed rule.
In September 2024, SpaceX was fined a combined $150,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality after those agencies determined that the company violated the Clean Water Act regarding the release of tens of thousands of gallons of what was considered industrial wastewater from the launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, National Public Radio reported that year. CNBC first reported the breach notices and related investigative records.
After news of the SpaceX Clean Water Act and other violations, the FAA delayed the Starship test flight for weeks, and asked SpaceX to demonstrate compliance with federal safety and environmental regulations.
Last September, a judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity that challenged the FAA’s 2022 permit to expand SpaceX’s launch operations near a wildlife refuge in remote, coastal South Texas.
The group alleged that noise, pollution, construction and traffic harmed people and nearby wildlife, including endangered species such as ocelots and jaguarundis, as well as Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, which live in the area.
In June, the Department of Justice asked a federal judge in Mississippi to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence lab, which is owned by SpaceX, accusing xAI of violating the Clean Air Act in its use of dozens of methane gas-burning engines to power its AI data centers without proper pollution or pollution control permits.
The DOJ, in the filing, accused the NAACP of threatening “America’s national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut down the artificial intelligence infrastructure that supports the Department of Defense’s military operations.”
