NASA and the Private Sector - Page 246

As SpaceX nears its first Starship launch of 2024—possibly as soon as within three weeks—from its Starbase facility in South Texas, the company is pressing regulators to increase its cadence of flights.

During a press availability this week, the administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration, Kelvin Coleman, said the agency is working with the company to try to facilitate the Starship launch-licensing process.

"They're looking at a pretty aggressive launch schedule this year," he said. "They're looking at, I believe, at least nine launches this year. That's a lot of launches. If you're doing modifications and doing them one by one, that's a lot of work. We've been talking to SpaceX constantly around the clock, coming together and trying to figure out how do we do this. We're invested with the company, and so we'll work with them to get them back going as soon as they can."

After SpaceX decided to launch and attempt to land its Starship vehicle in Texas about five years ago, the company had to undergo an enhanced environmental review of the site. As a part of this process, the FAA completed a Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment in June 2022. Following that review, SpaceX received approval to conduct up to five Starship launches from South Texas annually. An FAA official confirmed to Ars that the company is seeking a modification of this five-launch limit to accommodate a higher flight rate.

WASHINGTON — Spacecraft propulsion and launch company Astra Space has accepted a proposal from its founders to take the company private after previously warning its only other alternative was bankruptcy.

The company announced March 7 that it accepted a revised proposal made by Chris Kemp and Adam London, chief executive and chief technology officer respectively, on Feb. 24 to take the company private at $0.50 per share. That price was just one third of what the two originally offered in a November 2023 proposal to take the company private at $1.50 per share.

Astra said in a statement that a special committee of the company’s board of directors, tasked with evaluating that proposal and any alternatives, unanimously recommended the revised proposal. That committee, comprised of independent or otherwise disinterested directors, evaluated the proposal in the context of the company’s financial situation and concluded it was in the best interests of the company.