KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – The federal government took another step toward allowing SpaceX to fly its Starship rocket from Kennedy Space Center last week.
The Federal Aviation Administration released its final environmental impact statement for Starship on Friday, despite concerns about airspace closures disrupting commercial flights and sonic booms disrupting surrounding communities.
The plan calls for up to 44 Starship launches a year from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center. Half of those launches would happen between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
[READ: FAA Environmental Impact Statement]
The plan also calls for up to 88 landings per year, including return-to-launch site landings at or near the launch pad, or ocean landings on SpaceX’s droneships. That’s 44 Starship landings, along with 44 Starship Super Heavy landings.
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The most significant environmental concern the report found was the noise from the rocket.
“Launches, but not static fire tests or landings, would exceed 90 dB LAmax, a noise level considered likely to interfere with activities, in communities outside the boundaries of KSC and CCSFS,” the statement reads.
The statement says the elevated noise levels could be especially disturbing for people who don’t know they are happening.
To give you an idea of what that is like, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a person can damage their hearing if they listen to a sound at 91 dB for more than 2 hours.
The FAA’s statement also said the chance of sleep disturbance during overnight activities could be as high as 82% for people living in locations outside of Kennedy Space Center, particularly for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, children with autism or sleep disorders, and elderly people.
Meanwhile, sonic booms could also lead to a greater number of people affected, albeit at lower noise levels, including people in Titusville, Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa and Cocoa Beach. But the current sonic boom notices would be all that is required for now.
The FAA statement also says expected sonic booms would have a “1/10,000 probability of breakage for a large window in portions of Titusville, Port St. John, Merritt Island, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Rockledge and Cape Canaveral.”
The other big concern will be necessary airspace closures around each launch and landing that could disrupt dozens of commercial flights.
The Notional Aircraft Hazard Areas for launches and booster returns would extend eastward over the Atlantic for around 1,841 miles (1,600 nautical miles). It could impact the airspace for Canada and down south past Puerto Rico.
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Starship reentry trajectories could affect airspace southwest of KSC, extending down past Central America into the Pacific Ocean.
The FAA says airspace closures would last a minimum of 40 minutes, up to 2 hours for launches. For Starship reentries, airspace closures would be a minimum of 40 minutes and up to an hour.
The FAA says it will work with SpaceX to develop the proper trajectories and issue notices to temporarily close airspace as needed. It may mean “multiple airports may require departure stops,” and “substantial aircraft rerouting” may also be needed.