Let’s make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation

This was first posted to Twitter:

I think SpaceX should study all options to make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation.

This Reuters article says that SpaceX’s Starship testing (and therefore development) could be delayed by “anywhere from two to five years” in case the FAA conducts a full environmental impact review.

This would be a catastrophic outcome and result in China winning the race to space expansion and owning the solar system for the rest of this century.

It is possible, however, that “Congress could throw out the need for the environmental review if the project delays were deemed a national concern, given NASA’s plans for a moon landing by 2026 — a deadline the agency’s chief Bill Nelson has cast to lawmakers as an urgent race with China.”

I hope this will be the case. The article also says that “export controls would make building a foreign launch site difficult.” But I believe that Elon Musk should explore this option as well. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, and I’m sure many nations would want SpaceX in their territory.

In some mailing lists that I receive this has been linked to U.S. politics and the usual partisan talking points.

Not being a U.S. citizen or resident, I feel it’s not my place to comment on U.S. politics. But allow me to say that, from my perspective, both main parties seem only interested in protecting their dogmatic ideologies.

Picture from SpaceX / Flickr