SpaceX and Elon musk are one step closer to reaching
MArs. Just hours ago, the FAA made a
long awaited ruling on the company's Starship program which includes
a spacecraft designed for voyages to the moon to MARS
and beyond. The agency says it's requiring SpaceX to
take more than 75 actions to mitigate environmental impacts before
the company can receive a license to conduct flight tests
and begin launches from its facility in boca chica texas
. And while the ruling is essentially being viewed as
a win for SpaceX, it comes amid new reports
that Nasa has concerns about Starship putting its own launch
infrastructure at risk joining us now to discuss is chad
Anderson, managing partner of Space Capital, which is
a VC firm focused on space based technologies chad,
welcome to the show. So we know the FAA
delayed this ruling five times to be exact. What
exactly was the agency reviewing and what are your thoughts
on today's ruling? Yeah, it's a tough day
in the public markets, but a big day for
the space economy, we now have a long awaited
environmental decision on SpaceX's Starship program Um which began back
in November of 2020. So they've been at this
for a long time. Um and it's really been
um they need a launch license from the FAA,
the Office of Commercial Space Transportation but to do that
, they needed to get environmental assessment and so they're
on a on a large wildlife preserve. Um And
so so this is very important from a technical perspective
, the company has been ready to go for some
time. And now this decision will finally allow the
regulatory process to move forward and bringing starship orbital launches
from south texas closer to reality. We know Elon
musk wants to show customers the average american that starship
can successfully reach orbit, which has been a long
delayed and pivotal milestone in the rockets development. Could
this new report about concerns within Nasa delay the launch
further? How else could it threaten the future of
the Starship program as we know it? Well,
there's a lot going on today, so there's um
first of all, we've been waiting on this assessment
for a long time. Um This is really focused
on their south texas facility. Um there was a
backup plan in the works in florida and there was
also some reporting that came out about that. Um
the with the wind now with the ruling on the
environmental assessment moving forward, um that backup plan is
less of an option or or is less of an
issue, but really um this was about the new
fuel that they're using, the new um uh methane
um and oxygen, which they don't really know how
this um new fuel source um explodes. And so
they were a little bit concerned doing that so close
to some of the other launch um towers that are
in and advocate. Um but in south texas,
that's part of the reason why they're there. Um
is because um they have built star base to be
um a specific to Starship development musk has threatened to
move starships operations to florida if you don't get what
he wanted from the F. A. A.
How do you think musk will respond to this ruling
today? Well I think that it's a win.
Um You know, this is, they've got some
things that they still need to do. Like you
men mentioned, there's some mitigation um steps that they
still need to take before they can get their launch
license. Um But we already have a great analog
at the Cape um Mayor Island is a national wildlife
refuge, 100 and 40 acres in florida. It's
one of the largest and most diverse wildlife preserves in
the state. Um and there's an opportunity to do
something similar here at at Starbase. And so um
you know what what SpaceX is doing in texas is
is a big deal. Um It's really important.
I think the company is going to look at this
as a win and something you know that's going to
allow them to get on with um the development and
and launch this thing to orbit. Do you believe
that Starship will be the game changer when it comes
to the space industry and that Elon musk says it
will be and if so why 100% this is the
largest most powerful vehicle ever built. Um it is
fully reusable, which is key and rapidly reusable.
Um they think that they can launch this and relaunch
it again um, in 6-8 hours. So they
could be launching this vehicle two or three times per
day. It can carry 1100 m3 or 100 tons
to orbit. Um, and they said that they
can do this at a cost of$10 million.
So, um, this is a step change in
capability, um, a order of magnitude shift in
lower cost and it's going to make space accessible and
affordable for the first time. The two things that
have always been constant in space have been that it's
difficult to get to and it's very, very expensive
and so, um, you know, this is
going to be a game changer, not just in
launch, but in everything else that we're going to
be doing in in orbit chad, what other expectations
do you have for the future of the space industry
, what role do you think SpaceX will be playing
in it? Well, the only reason that we're
even here talking about, um, the space economy
as an opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs is because of
SpaceX 10 years ago, a little over 10 years
ago, they reduced the barriers entry by removing,
um, by, by bringing the cost of launch
way down and publishing their pricing Um, that has
allowed for um, over a quarter of a trillion
dollars in private equity capital to go into 1700 space
companies that were tracking over the last 10 years.
Um, this is going to have you know Starship
is going to have a similar impact and we're going
to see um a continuation and an acceleration of this
momentum. So we're gonna see more companies doing more
um uh in orbit for the benefit of Earth and
also for the expansion of our economy out into orbit
and beyond Nasa. Just last year. Pick SpaceX
to use Starship for the agency's first launch of US
astronauts to the lunar surface since the days of the
Apollo program. Do you think this new report about
Nasa and SpaceX could possibly compromises collaboration chad. I
think that the collaboration between Nasa and SpaceX is incredibly
tight. Um As it should be. Uh SpaceX
is enabling Nasa to do the things that it has
wanted to do for years and hasn't been able to
um for many many different reasons. But um Nasa
has a limited budget. Um SpaceX offers the agency
new capability at affordable prices in the same way that
it does for its commercial customers. So suddenly Nasa
is um able again to launch astronauts to the space
station. They're doing that through SpaceX. That's the
only capability that the U. S. Has um
the Artemis mission to land humans on on the moon
is going through SpaceX because they were the only affordable
option. So um good for commercial and government customers
. Well we always love talking space on this network
and we always appreciate your time chad chad Anderson managing
partner of Space Capital, Thank you so much.