Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Elon Musk vs. The FAA: Is He About to Dismantle His Own Regulator?

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Elon Musk vs. The FAA: Is He About to Dismantle His Own Regulator? · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that
• 0:08
  shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
• 0:13
  I'm your host Will Walden. When Space XS massive Starship
• 0:19
  rocket exploded over the Caribbean in January, scattering
• 0:21
  debris across multiple islands, the FAA acted swiftly.
• 0:26
  The agency temporarily grounded the program, launched an
• 0:29
  investigation and signaled that it was ready to enforce
• 0:32
  regulations meant to ensure public safety.
• 0:35
  It was the latest in a series of regulatory measures that have
• 0:38
  put the FA as Office of Commercial Space Transportation
• 0:41
  on a collision course with Elon Musk.
• 0:44
  He's the billionaire who's behind the world's most powerful
• 0:46
  commercial rocket company, SpaceX.
• 0:49
  But now with Musk holding an influential government position
• 0:52
  under President Donald Trump's administration, the future of
• 0:55
  the oversight is anything but certain.
• 0:58
  Now, before diving into this, a quick reminder.
• 1:01
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• 1:12
  subscribing ensures you'll never miss an episode.
• 1:14
  And I'll keep doing everything I can in my power to bring you the
• 1:19
  best content possible on this channel.
• 1:23
  Now Elon Musk, now the head of the newly created Department of
• 1:27
  Government Efficiency, has been vocal about his frustrations
• 1:29
  with the FA as regulatory approach.
• 1:32
  He's accused the agency of using lawfare against SpaceX and
• 1:35
  threatened legal action over what he calls regulatory
• 1:38
  overreach. Following the September 23rd or
• 1:41
  September 2023 announcement that the FAA was proposing $633,000
• 1:47
  in fines against SpaceX for safety violations, Musk took to
• 1:50
  X to call for drastic reforms. He said the fundamental problem
• 1:55
  is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there
• 1:58
  is a radical reform at the FAA now with Musk now with the helm
• 2:04
  of a federal department focused on cutting costs and eliminating
• 2:07
  regulatory barriers, current and former FA.
• 2:10
  As employees fear that EST and office already struggling to
• 2:15
  keep up with the surge in commercial space activity could
• 2:18
  be in his crosshairs. Former FAA employee said people
• 2:22
  are nervous, WHO spoke on a condition of anonymity now AS TS
• 2:27
  role is crucial though it licenses commercial rocket
• 2:29
  launches, assesses public safety risks, evaluates environmental
• 2:33
  impacts and ensures compliance with Airsafe regulations.
• 2:36
  Yet it operates with only about 160 people despite overseeing a
• 2:41
  skyrocketing number of launches every single week.
• 2:46
  Now. The numbers tell the story
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  though. In 20/19, AST licensed just 26
• 2:50
  launches by 2023 or in 2019. Then in 2023, it jumped up to
• 2:55
  157, most of them conducted by SpaceX.
• 2:59
  It was an increase of exponential proportions.
• 3:03
  And warning is that there's no sign of it slowing down if a
• 3:06
  rocket goes off course and nobody's double checking it.
• 3:09
  And so you have a major catastrophic event that's going
• 3:13
  to result in a huge backlash. Musk, however, sees things a
• 3:16
  little bit differently. SpaceX operates under what is
• 3:19
  called rapid iterative development and engineering
• 3:23
  philosophy that emphasizes moving fast, accepting failures,
• 3:26
  and improving on those failures with each test.
• 3:29
  This approach has led to dramatic advancements in rocket
• 3:32
  technology, but it's also resulted in explosions, debris
• 3:34
  incidents and concerns about public safety.
• 3:37
  Last month's Starship explosion forced dozens of commercial
• 3:40
  aircraft to divert their past to avoid falling wreckage from the
• 3:44
  Starship. Debris landed in populated areas
• 3:47
  of the Caribbean, damaging at least one car, and FAA
• 3:50
  investigators are still determining what went wrong.
• 3:53
  Now if that car was a person, this would be completely
• 3:56
  different. Despite the risks, Musk brushed
• 3:58
  it off, and he posted a video of the flaming debris field with
• 4:03
  the caption. Success is uncertain, but
• 4:05
  entertainment is guaranteed. He later dismissed the explosion
• 4:08
  as barely a bump in the road and suggested it wouldn't delay
• 4:12
  plans for the next launch. Despite the fact the FAA
• 4:15
  approval is still pending, some experts are alarmed by the
• 4:19
  situation. Jariba JA, an aerospace
• 4:22
  engineering professor at the University of Texas, described
• 4:25
  Musk's attitude as recklessness at a minimum.
• 4:29
  JA also pointed out what he sees as serious conflict of interest.
• 4:33
  He said that he now gets to provide government oversight
• 4:36
  over the things that he is trying to get permission to do
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  is one of the most significant conflicts of interest I've seen
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  in my career, and it's inexplicable to me.
• 4:44
  The White House has been largely silent on Doge's role in the
• 4:47
  FAA. Officials have only reference
• 4:49
  comments from Trump, who insisted that if Musk faced a
• 4:52
  conflict of interest. We won't let him go near it.
• 4:55
  Said Trump. And they said will Musk will
• 5:00
  excuse himself from these contracts if needed.
• 5:03
  But Musk isn't the only one advocating for less oversight of
• 5:06
  commercial spaceflight. Some members of Congress argue
• 5:09
  that FAA regulations are too restrictive and could slow
• 5:13
  America's progress in space. At a hearing in last September,
• 5:16
  Representative Bryant Babin, a Texas Republican and the
• 5:19
  incoming chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology
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  Committee, warned that excessive regulation could unnecessarily
• 5:25
  delay the return of astronauts to the moon for the Artemis
• 5:28
  program. And Babin did not respond to
• 5:30
  requests for an interview from us.
• 5:33
  So there you have it. And the pressure on AST is
• 5:36
  expected to intensify under Trump's new Transportation
• 5:38
  secretary, Sean Duffy. During his confirmation hearing,
• 5:41
  Senator Ted Cruz criticized the FA as enforcement actions
• 5:45
  against SpaceX and asked Duffy whether he would commit to
• 5:48
  curtailing bureaucratic overreach and accelerating
• 5:50
  launch approvals. Duffy responded.
• 5:53
  I commit to doing a review and working with you.
• 5:57
  Since taking office, Duffy has already spoken with Musk about
• 6:00
  potential changes to FAA oversight, a move that draw
• 6:03
  criticism from Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, who
• 6:06
  called it a conflict of interest.
• 6:08
  Now, some lawmakers, including Representative Zoe Lofgren, the
• 6:12
  top Democrat on the science committee, acknowledged the need
• 6:15
  for regulatory streamlining but insist that safety must remain a
• 6:19
  priority. There needs to be a traffic cop
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  here, Lofgren said, pointing to concerns over space debris,
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  noise pollution and risks to launchpad neighbors.
• 6:29
  This can't just be the Wild West, right?
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  And to speed, AS despite ASTS crucial role, its budget remains
• 6:35
  minimal. That's $42 million a year, less
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  than 1% of the FAA's total budget.
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  Now astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracks space
• 6:43
  launches at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
• 6:47
  argues that as the industry grows, AST will need more
• 6:50
  resources, not fewer. Government will need to play a
• 6:53
  role, and they're going to have to sort it out.
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  A 2023 government advisory committee recommended that AST
• 6:59
  be removed from the FAA and restructured as an independent
• 7:02
  agency within the Department of Transportation.
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  Supporters of the proposal argued that AST would get more
• 7:08
  resources and attention if it operated separately.
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  Others believe that the FAA's traditional focus on commercial
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  aviation safety, where failures are not tolerated, is
• 7:17
  fundamentally incapable with an industry where failures are
• 7:21
  expected and even necessary for progress.
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  The tension between safety and innovation is at the core of the
• 7:28
  debate. Though Government Accountability
• 7:29
  Office report founded over a three-year period leading up to
• 7:33
  2023, there are about a dozen mishaps in commercial Space
• 7:36
  Flight industry terminology for catastrophic explosions and
• 7:39
  major failures. None of these incidents resulted
• 7:42
  in deaths or serious injury, though.
• 7:44
  But they had other impacts. The first starlet Starship
• 7:47
  launch in April 2023, for example, sent a massive cloud of
• 7:51
  debris over South Texas, scattering chunks of concrete
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  and metal across an environmentally sensitive
• 7:57
  migratory bird habitat. Local residents have voiced
• 8:01
  concerns about the growing risks, but they've often been
• 8:04
  ignored. Musk, however, has openly mocked
• 8:07
  the concerns. When reports emerged the
• 8:09
  Spacex's debris had stained bird eggs with soot, he responded
• 8:12
  sarcastically. To make up for this heinous
• 8:15
  crime over refrain from having omelette for a week.
• 8:19
  SpaceX is already pushing AST to approve an aggressive lock
• 8:22
  schedule. Company completed 4 Starship
• 8:25
  launches in 2024 and aims for 25 more in 2025.
• 8:30
  Now, whether the FAA, under pressure from Musk and the Trump
• 8:32
  administration, will maintain its authority to regulate these
• 8:35
  launches remains an open question.
• 8:39
  For now, though, the AST and the oversight for the world's most
• 8:42
  powerful commercial rocket company may rest in the hands of
• 8:45
  the very man it was designed to regulate.
• 8:55
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 8:56
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• 8:58
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• 9:23
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