SpaceX presses to launch massive rockets from Texas more often

SpaceX is pushing to sharply increase rocket launches in Texas as it races to demonstrate its massive new vehicle can fly as designed.

The company has proposed to launch Starship rockets up to 25 times annually from its complex east of Brownsville, Texas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. SpaceX has permission to conduct up to five orbital flights there under a plan the agency approved in 2022.

SpaceX’s latest plan will likely draw scrutiny from some residents and environmental groups, who have said launches and related operations damage natural areas. Repeated beach closures for Starship operations have also generated frustration.

Supporters of SpaceX, including many elected officials in southeast Texas, have lauded the company for generating jobs and economic opportunities. The rocket maker has been transforming a corner of the state near the Gulf of Mexico through its development of what it calls Starbase, home to a large Starship factory and other facilities.

Standing nearly 400 feet tall on the launchpad, Starship is an important part of NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon. The company plans to use Starship for satellite deployments, including its own Starlink satellite-internet business. SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk hopes to one day use the vehicle to send people to Mars.

For now, SpaceX is still testing Starship, which hasn’t flown any satellites yet and faces technical hurdles.

In addition to its Texas proposal, the company is seeking to fly the vehicle dozens of times each year from Florida. Musk has talked about making Florida the company’s primary location for Starship missions. Environmental reviews for those proposals are under way.

Stepping up Starship’s flight rate in Texas requires a new environmental assessment overseen by the FAA, which regulates commercial-space launches.

In 2022, the FAA required SpaceX to carry out dozens of steps to mitigate the effects of Starship launches. Environmental groups have said that effort wasn’t enough.

FAA Deputy Administrator Katie Thomson said in an interview the aviation-safety agency would work with other government agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to analyze SpaceX’s Texas launch plans and gather public feedback.

SpaceX has poured resources into the Starship program, spending on new engines, ground infrastructure and staff. In a court filing from May 2023, the company said that over time it had invested more than $3 billion at Starbase and into the vehicle.

During its first flight from Texas last year, the Starship booster destroyed the launchpad during liftoff, spraying debris over a 385-acre area and starting a fire.

That damage generated criticism from environmental advocates and was folded into a lawsuit that several organizations filed against the FAA last year, claiming the agency failed to fully study and address the impact of Starship launches.

The FAA has denied those claims and sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, according to a court filing. Starship hasn’t destroyed the launchpad on three subsequent flights, after changes SpaceX made to improve it.

Thomson said the FAA had serious concerns about what happened during the first launch and required SpaceX to make changes before Starship could fly again.

“The information from that incident, as unfortunate as that incident was, will be a major consideration in how we evaluate and analyze the new environmental assessment,” she said.

In addition to proposing as many as 25 Starship launches from South Texas, SpaceX wants permission to land both the vehicle’s booster and its spacecraft at the site the same number of times. The company is working to make the rocket fully reusable.

Susan Pulliam contributed to this article.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com