SpaceX and California Are Clashing Over Rocket Launches

WIll SpaceX be launching dozens of rockets per year from a site on the California coast? Maybe not, if a recent decision from the California Coastal Commission is any indication. Writing at the Los Angeles Times, Salvador Hernandez reported that the commission in question denied SpaceX’s request for an increased number of launches — a request that had the support of both the Air Force and Space Force.

As Hernandez noted, the commission cited a number of reasons for declining SpaceX’s request, from the potential environmental impact to Elon Musk’s increasingly partisan activity on social media. It isn’t completely surprising to see Musk’s recent forays into politics clashing with his role as a government contractor — especially when he’s also been spreading misinformation about FEMA as of late.

It doesn’t sound like the commission’s vote against the increased launch schedule will the last word on the matter. Ravi Chaudhary, the U.S. Air Force’s Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and Environment said in a statement, “The Space Force’s dedication to collaboration here is in many ways unprecedented — so is our commitment to ensuring dialogue continues.”

The commission also indicated that they’d prefer to see SpaceX come before them with requests themselves as opposed to having the military make the requests on their behalf.

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Still, this decision is unlikely to improve relations between Musk and the state of California. Earlier this year, Musk pledged to move both X/Twitter and SpaceX from there to Texas. In at least one of these cases, the local government did not seem to be upset to see the company depart.