To most people’s surprise, the government of California is putting the break on SpaceX rocket launch plans. Elon Musk, the man with dreams of shooting rockets to Mars and people who famously trolls on twitter, is in the political cross hairs. The government agency recently rejected the Air Force’s proposal to boost SpaceX’s launch frequency from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where it blamed Musk’s political position.
Musk’s Politics in the Spotlight
At the core of this problem rests Elon Musk politics. It appears that some of his out loud utterances when backing Donald Trump and bashing government entities used some officials. During the meeting, Commissioner Gretchen Newsom was quite frank in her words telling that Musk’s political speeches and accusations related to FEMA while offering the hurricane aid through the Starlink service seemed questionable to her. “He’s tweeting faster than the speed of a rocket,” Newsom said. There is absolutely no doubt that Musk’s political activism is creating the most waves.
SpaceX Caught in the Middle
The Air and Space Force had submitted a requirement to increase SpaceX’s rocket launches per year from 36 to 50. Although this decision was supported by a bi-partisan group of congresspersons including both democrats and republicans, the California Coastal Commission had other ideas. The commission, which is in charge of preserving coastal lines in California, was not impressed with the plan.
The issue was not solely political for some of the members. Gathering criticism from SpaceX’s operations, Commissioner Dayne Bocho questioned the need for the Air Force to come bearing the company’s relevance to government business. Specifically, it appears that even when NASA uses businesses such as SpaceX for transporting people and goods into space that was not sufficient to cause change in the vote.
A Political Power Struggle
Still, it’s not the first time Musk’s ventures have been met with resistance from California authorities. Congressman Kevin Kiley explained that SpaceX has recently changed its headquarters from California to Texas because of different policies.
Civil liberties groups campaigning for the protection of the First Amendment have also raised issues with the lawfulness of employing Musk’s political free speech as a reason to regulate. And what does the CEO’s twitter feed have to do with government agencies’ business of addressing environmental impacts? FIRE, the First Amendment advocacy group, has compared it to other cases when companies seemed to be penalized for their political stance.
Housing and Rocket Launches—A Practical Controversy
The decision has received some rather unique support. Local housing activists who always turn into foes with the California’s Coastal Commission due to its frequent slowdowns and rejections of housing projects have not supported it. Such a day, a pro-housing activist said to CCC: It is strange, rocket launch denial is the same as the no-home-building denial, the CCC seems to be on a ‘deny everything’ campaign.
Being used to Musk’s political opinions, few consider that it is a bit over the top to block the expansion based on politics alone. A housing advocate went even further describing the commission as a ‘rogue agency,’ a reference lost on the fact that the US Air Force was fully in support of SpaceX’s proposal.
What’s Next for Musk?
Unsurprisingly, Elon Musk has threatened to sue the California Coastal Commission which he feels targets his company. He plans to go to court and launch a legal battle against them this week. It is not the first time Musk has decided to take a fight to court and certainly won’t be the last. Being one of the most prominent personalities in the technology sector, controversy with the regulating bodies appears to be Musk’s specialty.
On the other hand, SpaceX keep on pushing other milestones on the space industry. At the weekend, demanding feats of technology and engineering the company was able to achieve real a soft landing of part of its “Starship” rocket which it designed to make space travel cheaper.
The Final Frontier—or Just Politics?
On balance it could be said that space exploration and politics are connected in a way which people sometimes prefer not to accept.For now though, the rockets will have to stay grounded and Musk will have other wars to fight in court and on the social media platform.
