A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches from Vandemburg SFB (photo: G Wyatt)
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has been advocating to increase the number of rocket launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, but not everyone is supportive of his expansion plans.
On Thursday, October 10th, SpaceX met with the California Coastal Commission (CCC) to discuss plans “by the United States Space Force to increase Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) Falcon 9 launch activities at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) from 36 to 50 per year, in Santa Barbara County,” according to the CCC October Meeting Agenda. In other words, SpaceX had wanted to rapidly increase their number of launches to 50 launches per year. However, to do this, they needed permission from the state government. They requested permission from the CCC since these launches were being fired off of the Vandenburg Space Force Base, which is located near the California coast.
The CCC voted 6 to 4 at the meeting and rejected SpaceX’s request. Prior to the meeting, many people commented on SpaceX’s request, telling the CCC why they thought that SpaceX’s request should be approved or rejected.
“I am against additional SpaceX launches due to the environmental impacts on people and animals,” Marina Lenney said. There are other comments from the public, and other people have asked that SpaceX’s request be rejected.
Ashley Griffin said, “I … can see the rocket launches from my house. They used to be rare, exciting events. We would run outside and watch the trail of the rocket and wait for the sonic boom. Now, however, they occur so frequently that we no longer bother going outside to look at them, and the sonic boom is just another noise to deal with. Please do not increase the number of launches that SpaceX is allowed! I would prefer they be decreased or eliminated.”
However, not all people are against SpaceX’s request.
“The California Coastal Commission voted 6-4 … citing in part the political activities of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on X. These [people from the CCC] are targeting Musk\’s business operations due to his vocal political stances on the platform, rather than solely focusing on environmental or safety concerns,” said Ian Miles Ching.
Others have made similar assessments. “…the Coastal Commission just rejected the plan, citing unrelated political posts by Elon Musk. This illegal action needs to be reversed immediately,” Kevin Kiley said.
Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, had threatened to file a lawsuit against the CCC, and on Tuesday October 14th, he did just that, “arguing [that] the agency is acting well outside its authority,” according to Reason Magazine.
“I’m with Elon,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said. “I didn’t like that.”
According to Politico, “Newsom indicated [that] he broadly agreed with the lawsuit and that the independent agency should have confined its debate to the merits of the permit, rather than engage in a discussion of Musk’s political activities.”
The lawsuit that Musk has filed is still unresolved and pending.
