US regulator wants to fine Elon Musk's SpaceX $633,000 – Kommersant
Today, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated about its intention to impose a $633,009 fine on Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). The regulator said the company arbitrarily made changes to procedures for two rocket launches in May and July 2023. In doing so, SpaceX violated the operating conditions stipulated in the license for commercial companies providing space transportation services. In the first case, the company added an additional launch control point to one of its hangars at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and waived a two-hour readiness report. For this, the FAA proposes to fine SpaceX $350,000 - $175,000 for each violation.
In the second case, the company unauthorizedly built a new rocket fuel storage facility that was used during the launch of the EchoStar XXIV/Jupiter mission. For this violation, the FAA is proposing to fine SpaceX $283,009.
Now Elon Musk's company has 30 days to respond to the regulator's claims and appeal them. SpaceX itself has not yet commented on the statement of the US Federal Aviation Administration.
