Episode 1506: Shocking Answers to Your Starship Lawsuit Questions

Talk all you want about the delays caused by repairs/mods to the launch pad and re-certifying the Autonomous Flight Termination System, the real issue that is grounding Starship at Boca Chica is this one thing: The Lawsuit.

You know … the one filed by a consortium of environmental groups and Indigenous tribes against the FAA alleging (based on the observable environmental damage wrought by the April test launch) FAA’s inadequate oversight and review of SpaceX’s plans and operations at Boca Chica.

This time around, Larry Herrin and Gene Mikulka are joined by the guy who accurately predicted that the Starship test launch last April 20th would cause more damage than SpaceX or the FAA’s own calculations predicted in its worst-case scenario. His name is Eric Roesch, and he goes by the Twitter handle @ESGHound.

Turns out, Eric has experience working both the consulting and regulatory sides of the fence in shepherding Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) documents through the process; knows quite a bit about the related issues; and has some well-reasoned answers to questions like:

• Eric, how do you know so much about this stuff?
• Why did SpaceX want to join the FAA as a co-defendant in the lawsuit?
• What are some of the strategies the Plaintiffs may use to try to win it all (or at least wrangle some additional mitigations that SpaceX will have to implement)?
• How much longer will we have to wait for a decision?
• What is the most likely outcome? Will it be:
  • The Plaintiffs win it all, and SpaceX must go back to the drawing board for years while a new Environmental Impact Statement is prepared, reviewed, and revised again and again?
  • The Plaintiffs manage to wrangle some concessions, and FAA adds some additional mitigations to the existing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document with which SpaceX must comply?
  • Defendants prevail and it’s business as usual under the existing launch license?

The answers may surprise you!

All will be revealed in this episode of Talking Space.

Please be sure to let us know your thoughts on the topics we discuss. You can always reach us at mailbag@TalkingSpaceOnline.com .

How to contact Eric and read his writings:

website: blog.esghound.com

Substack: esghound.substack.com

Twitter: @ESGHound

Show recorded 06-21-2023.

Host: Larry Herrin

Panelist(s): Gene Mikulka (Mark Ratterman, Sawyer Rosenstein and Dr. Kat Robison will return)

Podcast Editor: Larry Herrin