I will have a lot to say about this later when I have a chance to thoughtfully respond. The fact this happened with ZERO repercussions is flat out unacceptable. SN8’s launch was negligent; we shouldn’t even be talking about a flight today. Livid doesn’t even cover it. https://twitter.com/Free_Space/status/1356603400171970560

Now that I’ve had some time to mull things over, I’m going to present a series of reasoning why this incident is dangerous. I come from the position of a professional engineer with 6+ years of experience in both civil and commercial spaceflight.

From Jeff Foust’s reporting, SpaceX sought a waiver from the FAA to exceed maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations. Their waiver was denied, and SpaceX, for reasons unknown, chose to fly regardless. https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1356590408579579910?s=20

The choice to fly SN8 knowing it was a violation of SpaceX’s launch license for Starship was a willful action that placed undue risk on public safety. There's no other way to put it. At best, SpaceX’s choice to fly was irresponsible; at worst, it was negligent.

If someone was hurt or killed, or property was damaged as a result of the flight, we’d be talking about criminal negligence. It’s unfortunate this happened in the last week of January, a time when NASA remembers the loss of Apollo-1, Challenger, and Columbia.

Three crews, 17 people, lost their lives because of erosions in NASA’s safety culture, because of schedule pressures, and because of launch fever. In our business, if you have launch fever, you have no business being in our business.

Spaceflight is inherently risky, especially rocketry, but those risks are mitigated through sound engineering design, testing, and training. Operational and developmental tempo should NEVER override safety. There are deadly consequences when safety is overlooked.

Spaceflight does not tolerate carelessness, incapacity, or neglect. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with a regulation, or believe its antiquated, does not mean you can knowingly choose to ignore it. We don’t get to pick a choose whether to follow federal regulations

Regulations exist for a reason. There are avenues in which policy changes can be made: but we don’t get to ignore them because we don’t like them.

Are the regulations outdated for the current commercial space environment: yes; do they need overhaul: again, yes; can you ignore them because you don’t agree with them: NO. The industry is highly regulated because of the inherent danger of spaceflight activities.

The Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) exists to ensure compliance by commercial operators to the OST, and “to protect the public health and safety and safety of property …”

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/

There charter literally states protection of the public; when holding up SpaceX’s launch license, they were simple doing their job as required by law. And for those interested, the FAA, being an administration within the Department of Transportation, is codified under 49 USC 106

The FAA's existence is required by law to provide oversight and regulation of aerial activities (aircraft, rotorcraft, balloons, and rockets) operating within the National Airspace. I don't know the full details of how the FAA rectified the safety concerns with Starship.

Another concern here is not just the safety aspect, but also liability. A launch license provides insurance coverage, by the American taxpayers, for any and all damages incurred on property or life as a result of spaceflight activities (as mandated in the OST).

From appearances, the only repercussions for this violation was a few days delay in SN9's launch. The FAA comes down much harder for minor infractions with no risk to the public (permanent suspension of a PPL for accidental penetration of DC restricted airspace).

And I shouldn’t need to say it, but criticism != anti-SpaceX. Valid criticism is necessary to bring about positive change. Organizations cannot be judged solely by their successes. You can’t judge NASA based only on their greatest triumphs without acknowledging their flaws.

The space industry wants and needs SpaceX to succeed. Their work has literally changed the paradigm of the launch industry; they’re work has ignited a renewed interest in spaceflight and opened opportunities we could only dream of a decade ago.

Starship development is about the most exciting things going on in today. But Starship activities must be conducted in a safe manner that does not place undue harm on the public. As an industry, we owe it to public to conduct our activities in a professional and controlled manner

If you've made it this far, understand that we can be both excited about Starship launches AND concerned about safety. I encourage you to visit AST's website, learn about the regulations, and why they're important.

Finally, feel free to DM me with questions. I'm always happy to answers questions about spaceflight (both general and technical).