Elon Musk’s posts on X were mentioned by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday as a deterrent for allowing more SpaceX rockets to launch from the state’s coastline.
From posts about the presidential election to posts about Hurricane Helene and Federal Emergency Management Agency misinformation, the CCC found them substantial enough to block the Air Force’s plan to give SpaceX permission to launch up to 50 rockets a year from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said at the meeting in San Diego.
The agency’s commissioners were appointed by the governor and legislative leaders. The SpaceX plan was rejected in a 6-4 vote, but there were other concerns besides Musk’s posts, such as SpaceX’s launches being considered military activity, shielding Musk from having to get his own permits.
“I do believe that the Space Force has failed to establish that SpaceX is a part of the federal government, part of our defense,” Commissioner Dayna Bochco said.
The CCC is known for its unwavering dedication to defending the coastline and public access to it. Since the Department of Defense asked to increase SpaceX’s Vandenberg satellite launches from six to 36 per year in May 2023, the agency has been at odds with the Air Force’s Space Force branch.
The CCC was worried about the environmental impacts of the launches, which disturb wildlife, such as threatened species, and people enjoying the California coast who have to leave every time there is a launch.
The CCC eventually agreed to the plan of 36 launches in August on the condition that the Space Force take environmental protection and coastal access seriously, which military officials did not commit to at the meeting, upsetting the CCC.
“Space Force came here and intentionally disrespected us,” Bochco said at the August meeting in which the vote was decided.
The two groups came together in agreement in September when the Air Force said the Space Force would adhere to the CCC’s seven conditions, which include increasing wildlife monitoring and decreasing sonic booms. There was a push toward an agreement by a group of bipartisan state and federal lawmakers who said California should take advantage of the DOD’s embrace of the commercial space industry.
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Yet the welcoming attitude toward the Space Force fell away when the actions of Musk, the head of SpaceX, were called into play, as well as the Space Force’s labor record and the opportunity for SpaceX to find loopholes in military permit exemptions.
“I really appreciate the work of the Space Force,” Commission Chairwoman Caryl Hart said. “But here we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race, and he’s managed a company in a way that was just described by Commissioner Newsom that I find to be very disturbing.”