[staunch]

> FAA Administrator Steve Dickson spoke with Musk on March 12 for 30 minutes to stress "the FAA’s role in protecting public safety by ensuring regulatory compliance....

If there are legit concerns that the FAA needs to be involved in, that's fine. But the fact that Dickson is personally involved is a sign he might be the kind of person that likes to flex on people. There's almost certainly no good reason for him to be personally involved.

If Dickson is just out to engage in a public pissing contest with Elon Musk, it's not hard to predict the outcome. Musk, in 2021, is not easily bullied.

[edrxty]

I've actually dealt with the FAA on a rocket launch. They're an INCREDIBLY bureaucratic agency. We were inside a continually restricted airspace volume (R-xxxx) as well as a TFR that was miles wide, but at the last minute we were restricted from flying a remotely controlled aircraft released at an apogee of around 2000ft AGL. We'd already received prior approval but then someone at the regional office decided they wanted to flex on the other agency we were working with. There were absolutely no safety concerns, real, procedural, or imagined. It was just someone settling a score with someone else.

[staunch]

Exactly my concern. And IF that's what's going on here then Dickson deserves to be fired.

[fooey]

Musk is already muzzled by a federal agency.

Going head to head with the agency controlling airspace on top of that is a pretty terrible idea.

[staunch]

The difference is that the SEC was legally in the right. It wasn't the SEC Chairman choosing to flex his authority on a high profile private company.

If Musk is in the right here, the FAA will not have any luck bullying him.