Musk's SpaceX sues California panel over alleged political bias in rocket launch decision

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing members of a California commission of political bias in blocking the company from launching more rockets from a military installation in the state.

SpaceX sued the California Coastal Commission seeking a court ruling that would block the agency from regulating SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch program at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara. The Air Force has proposed increasing the number of launches SpaceX can perform at the base from 36 to 50.

The lawsuit alleges that the commission, which has oversight over the use of land and water along California's more than 1,000 miles of coastline, unfairly asserted regulatory powers over SpaceX launches based on members' disapproval of Musk's political views. 

At an Oct. 10 hearing, the commission said that SpaceX's commercial space launches aren't a federal government activity and therefore fall under the commission's coastal permitting authority. SpaceX says that commissioners demonstrated "overt, and shocking, political bias" in a public hearing where they voted 6-4 against allowing SpaceX to increase the number of launches from the base. 

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The company's lawsuit cited comments by Commissioner Caryl Hart saying, "The concern is with SpaceX increasing its launches, not with the other companies increasing their launches… we're dealing with a company… the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race and made it clear what his point of view is."

Other commissioners made similar comments. The suit quoted Commissioner Gretchen Newsom as saying Musk was "hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet."

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Commissioner Mike Wilson noted that SpaceX's Starlink is "one of the most extensive communications networks on the planet" and that Musk had recently been "speaking about political retribution on a national stage." 

Commissioner Jason Cummings added that he shared some of Wilson's concerns and said that while "we are all trying to operate in this apolitical space, we do know that the person who controls these companies has enough power to not work in the best interest, when they feel like it, of our allies."

SpaceX's suit also pushed back on commissioners justifying their decision by saying that some of the company's launches at the base are commercial, rather than being related to national security. 

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The company said that because it's one of only two National Security Space Launch program providers, it has to share data with the federal government on all of its launches, commercial or not, for mission assurance purposes which demonstrates the connection of its commercial launches to national security space launches. 

The suit accused the commission of violating the constitutional right to free speech by considering Musk's political comments in their decision, as well as interfering with national security operations at the base and overstepping its legal authority by attempting to regulate federal lands outside the commission's remit.

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The California Coastal Commission declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Reuters contributed to this report.