Relativity Terran R at Cape Canaveral: FAA Adopts Space Force Review and Issues FONSI/ROD for SLC-16 Launch Program

What Relativity proposes at SLC-16

• Relativity's Proposed Action is to launch its Terran R vehicle from Space Launch Complex 16 (SLC-16) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
• Terran R follows the retirement of Relativity's Terran 1 program, according to the notice.
• Relativity must obtain a license from the FAA to conduct Terran R commercial launch operations at SLC-16.
• The 2024 Final SEA analyzed the FAA's issuance of a vehicle operator license for Terran R operations and the FAA's approval of related airspace closures.

What the FAA decided

After an independent review of the 2024 Final SEA, the FAA issued a FONSI/ROD concurring with and formally adopting the analysis of impacts and findings in that document. The USSF had already issued its own FONSI and Finding of No Practicable Alternative on January 30, 2024.

In plain terms, this closes the FAA's environmental step for the Terran R program at SLC-16. It is an environmental finding under NEPA, not by itself a launch date, and the notice does not announce a license issuance date or a flight schedule.

Why the Space Coast should track it

Cape Canaveral's launch neighborhood is filling up. In recent weeks Notice Nearby has covered FAA environmental reviews for Blue Origin's New Glenn cadence at SLC-36 and SpaceX Starship at SLC-37. Terran R at SLC-16 adds another commercial space launch operator whose operations come with airspace closures over the Atlantic. Boaters, pilots, and coastal communities near Port Canaveral and Cape Canaveral feel those closure windows directly.

How to read the documents

• FONSI/ROD and related NEPA documents: FAA commercial space NEPA page, https://www.faa.gov/space/environmental/nepa_docs
• Docket: FAA-2026-12046.
• The notice lists the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation environmental contact for questions.
• No public comment period is opened by this notice; it is a notice of availability of a decision document.

Sources

1. Federal Register (Sept. 28, 2026), Document 2026-19716, 91 FR 61274: Notice of Availability on the Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for Relativity Terran R Launch Program, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/28/2026-19716/notice-of-availability-on-the-finding-of-no-significant-impact-and-record-of-decision-for-relativity
2. FAA commercial space NEPA documents: https://www.faa.gov/space/environmental/nepa_docs

Not legal advice. Not a newspaper. Not Legal Publication. Record of Sale, LLC (Oregon).

Notes and sources

1. Author: Ryan Standley / Record of Sale, LLC / Notice Nearby.
2. Discussed on @NoticeNearYou: (pending — fill xPostUrl after live post).
3. Not legal advice. Not a newspaper. Not Legal Publication. Record of Sale, LLC (Oregon).