The Federal Aviation Administration stated Monday that it’ll require Elon Musk’s SpaceX to make dozens of environmental changes to conduct extra Starship flight assessments and start operational launches from its facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX can be required to take greater than 75 actions to mitigate environmental impacts earlier than the corporate can obtain a launch license for the location, the FAA stated in a information launch. Mitigations embody protections for water sources, limits on noise ranges, and management of biohazardous supplies, amongst others.

SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark, however in a tweet shared a hyperlink to the FAA’s web site with a short message: “One step nearer to Starship’s first orbital flight take a look at.”

The corporate is creating its almost 400-foot-tall reusable Starship rocket with the aim of transporting cargo and teams of individuals past Earth. The rocket and its Tremendous Heavy booster are powered by SpaceX’s Raptor sequence of engines.

The FAA initiated a evaluate of this system in November 2020 after the corporate started creating its infrastructure and operations on the Gulf of Mexico coast close to the town of Brownsville, Texas.

The company delayed its ultimate analysis 5 occasions up to now six months whereas it reviewed enter into this system. Its Monday choice of a mitigated discovering of no vital impression stays a partial victory for SpaceX, sparing the corporate an extended evaluate of its operations, referred to as an Environmental Impression Assertion.

The FAA launched two key paperwork on Monday: a abstract of the environmental evaluation and an in depth abstract of actions to be taken by the corporate.

As a part of the FAA evaluate, a report earlier this yr from the US Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by CNBC discovered a correlation between SpaceX exercise within the space and up to date declines within the native inhabitants. of the Piping Plover, a species of fowl in peril of extinction. Nonetheless, the FWS advised minimal spending or conservation commitments from SpaceX.

SpaceX has accomplished a number of high-altitude flight assessments with Starship prototypes, however has but to succeed in area because of regulatory and growth delays. In February, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave a presentation about Starship on the firm’s Starbase facility in Texas, outlining the best way ahead and obstacles to testing the rocket.