WASHINGTON — President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Transportation (DOT) says he will reconsider fines levied by the Federal Aviation Administration against SpaceX for launch license violations.
Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Transportation, told members of the Senate Commerce Committee at a Jan. 15 confirmation hearing that he would “review” the fines against SpaceX as well as more broadly review the regulatory process for commercial launches.
The FAA fined SpaceX $633, 009 in September for violations of provisions of launch licenses covering two missions in 2023. The agency assessed $350,000 in fines for two violations of the license for a June 2023 launch where SpaceX used a different control center and did not conduct a poll two hours before launch as outlined in its communications plan. It assessed a $283,009 fine for the use of an unapproved propellant tank farm for another launch in July 2023.
Both SpaceX and some advocates for the company in Congress criticized the FAA for the fines. In a letter, SpaceX claimed the violations did not affect public safety and blamed the FAA for acting slowly on license modifications.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, asked Duffy if he would direct the FAA, part of the Department of Transportation, to review the fines. “Fines like these, in my judgement, are not only corrosive but are counter to U.S. law, which states that DOT should ‘encourage, facilitate and promote’ commercial space, not stymie, curtail and obstruct it,” Cruz said, asking Duffy to also examine “curtailing bureaucratic overreach” for commercial launch.
“I commit to doing a review and working with you in following up on the space launches and what’s been happening at the FAA,” Duffy responded.
Launch licensing is performed by a small office within the FAA called the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST. At the end of the three-hour confirmation hearing, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) mentioned the office, noting he was not familiar with it until he became the top Republican on the committee’s space committee in the previous Congress.
“I just want to make sure we’re on the same page and work together on these issues,” Schmitt said, citing competition with China. Duffy agreed but didn’t comment further on AST specifically.
The statements by Cruz and Schmitt were the only ones about space directed to Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin. The hearing was primarily devoted to discussion of other modes of transportation, from highways to aviation.
The hearing did not address one potential action by the incoming administration. There is speculation within government and industry that the Trump administration might move AST out of the FAA and make it standalone office under the Secretary of Transportation. Such a move, advocates argue, could make the office more responsive and give it more resources that possible today as a small organization within the FAA.
Such a move would not require congressional action. Laws on commercial space transportation give licensing and related authorities to the Secretary of Transportation. That was initially done through an Office of Commercial Space Transportation under the secretary, but in the mid-1990s that office was moved within the FAA. An executive order by the president, or an action by the secretary, could move the office back out of the FAA if they so desire.
