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.
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The United States has removed Francesca Albanese, a United Nations expert on the Palestinian territories, from its sanctions list, according to the U.S. Treasury Department website.
Israeli police have come under criticism after footage showed activists from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla kneeling on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs following their detention by Israeli forces.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Beijing on Wednesday, showing close political alignment even though key economic deals were not finalised.
Asian stocks surged on Thursday as some vessels resumed passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while forecast-beating results at Nvidia and a suspended workers' strike at Samsung Electronics lifted shares of chipmakers.
United Nations World Urban Forum 13 continues in Baku, Azerbaijan on 19 May with sessions and roundtable discussions focused on strengthening dialogue and advancing cooperation in urban development. Organisers say there are nearly 3 billion people globally who face some form of housing inadequacy.
Azerbaijan and Georgia have agreed to resume daily passenger train services on the Baku-Tbilisi-Baku route from 26 May, 2026, marking a major step in restoring regional rail connectivity after services were suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Day four of the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Baku brings a packed agenda on sustainable cities and the global housing crisis, with sessions on green housing, smart cities, public spaces and urban rights taking place on Wednesday (20 May) at Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan.
At least 21 people have been killed and thousands evacuated after torrential rain triggered flooding, landslides and transport disruption across southern and central China, with authorities warning that more heavy rainfall is expected along the Yangtze River.
Asian stocks surged on Thursday as some vessels resumed passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while forecast-beating results at Nvidia and a suspended workers' strike at Samsung Electronics lifted shares of chipmakers.
Demand for electric vehicles has surged across Europe as elevated fuel prices linked to the Iran conflict push consumers toward new and second-hand EVs, according to data shared with Reuters. It is providing a boost to an auto industry that has struggled with slower-than-expected adoption.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is facing its largest potential labour action in years, with tens of thousands of workers preparing for a prolonged strike over bonuses and profit-sharing at a time when the company is benefiting from a global artificial intelligence (AI) driven chip boom.
Government bond markets from Tokyo to New York extended losses on Monday (18 May) as rising energy prices linked to the Middle East conflict heightened inflation concerns and reinforced expectations that major central banks could keep interest rates higher for longer.
Negotiations between Samsung Electronics and its workforce on Wednesday have broken down, officials said, raising fresh concerns over potential disruption to South Korea’s export-heavy economy.
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