Elon Musk’s SpaceX will have to improve its reliability before receiving approval for its target 10,000 launches annually within five years, Bryan Bedford, Head of the U.S. civil aviation agency, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has said.
Bedford, Administrator of the FAA, said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell had told him about the firm’s goals to conduct 170 launches in 2025, deploying around 2,500 satellites.
Bedford said on Wednesday (20 May) that Shotwell told him "about the SpaceX five-year vision to get to 10,000 launches a year,” but the FAA chief cautioned that such a target wouldn’t be authorised until much greater reliability was achieved.
"We need to see a lot more reliability," Bedford told reporters after the forum.
The FAA licenses all commercial space launches and takes steps to streamline key hurdles. It imposes restrictions to ensure operations or space accidents do not interfere with passenger air traffic.
Bedford said the purpose of his meeting with SpaceX "was to go through the constraints that we see and what can we do planning wise now to put ourselves in a position to accommodate that type of a stretch goal."
He said the FAA was reviewing data from prior launches to better understand risks. To address safety concerns, the FAA had to bar flights in some areas at the time of launch and "that can be very disruptive," Bedford said.
He added that the FAA was not currently the limiting factor for space launches, but said he could see a future where that was the case due to a lack of funding the agency's space section received.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Forbes video interview that aired this week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk noted the company already has 10,000 satellites in orbit and eventually wants to launch 10,000 communications satellites per year, though he did not specify a timeframe.
In January, SpaceX said it wanted to launch a constellation of one million satellites that will orbit earth and harness the sun to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.
Baku Climate Action Week (BCAW) 2026 has begun in Azerbaijan’s capital, bringing together government representatives, business leaders, inves...
Pakistan faces a fresh test over preferential access to one of its biggest export markets as the European Union introduces a new GSP+ framework fro...
Kazakhstan plans to build an international Earth observation satellite network of up to 14 spacecraft, expanding a project already bringing togethe...
An eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Anak Krakatau has disrupted air travel, school activities and fishing operations, with hundreds of passengers stranded at Jakarta’s main airport on Sunday.
At least five people were killed and five others injured when an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane overran a runway and crashed while landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday, 6 September, local officials said.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the United States must recognise that the “rules of the game” in its war against Iran had changed “before it is too late”, a day after Washington struck several Iranian tankers in the Gulf.
Two Greek military pilots were killed on Saturday when an F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashed during an air show at Tanagra air base, north of Athens, officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held more than three hours of talks with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow on efforts to end the Ukraine war.
Volkswagen’s supervisory board has approved a major overhaul aimed at cutting 100,000 jobs by 2030 as the German carmaker battles weaker sales, falling profits and intensifying global competition.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has called on American companies to expand their presence in China and pledged that Beijing would address their "reasonable concerns," as China looks to stabilise trade ties with Washington ahead of President Xi Jinping's planned visit to the U.S. later this month
Apple is entering a new era as Tim Cook steps down as chief executive after 15 years at the helm, handing the technology giant's leadership to longtime executive John Ternus.
Volkswagen is heading towards a decisive showdown with labour representatives as Germany's largest carmaker weighs sweeping restructuring measures that could lead to factory closures and tens of thousands of job losses.
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is seeking to raise up to $1.77 billion in a Hong Kong IPO after its valuation fell around 70 per cent from its private-market peak four years ago.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment