On 28 Dec 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration issued notice that it was not able to meet the original 31 December target for on its programmatic environmental assessment for SpaceX.

In its statement it said:

As previously announced, the FAA had planned to release the Final PEA in on December 31, 2021. However, due to the high volume of comments submitted on the Draft PEA, discussions and consultation efforts with consulting parties, the FAA is announcing an update to the schedule. The FAA now plans to release the Final PEA on February 28, 2022.

A widely spread report finds this explanation to be somewhat insulting though, given that the FAA set its target weeks after the comment period ended.

SpaceX hopes to have a dozen or more launches in 2022 and to launch real cargo missions in 2023. It is also confident that the cost per launch of its interplanetary capable system will be less than the cost of a Falcon 9 launch once things are firmly established.