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On March 23, SpaceX issued a letter to the FAA

April 12, 2018 by Kimberly Parks

On March 23, SpaceX issued a letter to the FAA requesting a permit for launch on April 20. The letter states that the FAA is obligated to issue a "reasonable and consistent" delay permit for the Falcon Heavy payload transfer, which will require the FAA to perform a "final, independent and cost effective" review of the Falcon Heavy launch data to ensure Falcon Heavy has sufficient launch data for the future.

On March 24, SpaceX issued these further requests, stating that "We are in the process of evaluating these requests as of March 31, 2018, and we will evaluate those requests on an ongoing basis." However, due to the new launch date of March 21, SpaceX stated that they did not have enough time to prepare for an actual launch date.

This week, SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the FAA after the launch of CRS-17 and other payloads.

On March 21, the New York Times reported that SpaceX had filed an injunction to block the FAA from enforcing the FAA's order for the FAA to issue launch permits on a "short term" basis. This would be the first time that a company had filed lawsuits since the FAA issued a temporary restraining order in January.

In addition, on March 22, SpaceX filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that they were not covered by the FAA's request for the order. On March 23, a judge issued a temporary restraining order that will prevent the FAA from enforcing the order, and on March 29, the FAA issued a temporary restraining order on the matter that will prevent the FAA from enforcing the order.

This week, SpaceX launched CRS-17 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A press release sent out to the press on March 24 states that the mission will start on March 21, and the Dragon spacecraft will dock in space on March 22.