UNSPLASH
The California Coastal Commission voted on Thursday against a plan by Elon Musk's SpaceX to nearly double the number of Falcon 9 rocket launches the company is permitted to conduct each year from Vandenberg Space Force Base, from 50 to 95.
But as was the case when the commission voted last October to oppose a previous SpaceX launch expansion from 36 to 50 at the installation, the U.S. government can merely override the objections of California regulators and approve the latest plan.
The U.S. Department of the Air Force, parent agency of the Space Force, has taken the position that the proposed launch expansion at Vandenberg, about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Santa Barbara on the central California coast, is a federal activity exempt from further state oversight.
A commission staff report countered that of 51 rockets launched last year from Vandenberg, SpaceX Falcon 9s accounted for 46 of them.
While SpaceX flies some missions for the Defense Department and NASA, the enlarged launch operations SpaceX envisions are primarily for carrying payloads for the company's own Starlink satellite network, the report said.
SpaceX also has sought to expand its launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.