Anything in engineering that involves using parts or processes that are not officially approved (unless there is an exigent need to do so and the parties involved in the exigency accept the risk) should be severely punished. I don't care who you are. If anything, the fines should be percentage based on revenue (not profit, revenue) to deter deep pockets from fucking around (and hopefully for the safety of everybody involved) not finding out.
Secondarily, if the FAA didn't do this they would be roasted for playing favorites with SpaceX.
So I haven't been fined or in trouble with the FAA so I don't know how harsh they do things. This could be normal. That said, my understanding of government fines is they are usually reserved for willful deceit or negligence. This sounds like there was 40 different forms to fill out, and the FAA doesn't have their T-2 poll because SpaceX thought it wasn't part of the launch procedure anymore. A T-2 poll is done 2 minutes before launch to check and make sure everything is in order, but there is also a T-2 and T-4 hours check, plus a T-60, T-10, and T-0 poll, in addition to unofficial checks.
IMO what should have (or what usually would happen) is after the first launch, someone would have said "where's the T-2 minute poll?", then they would have realized the FAA didn't approve the T-2, and this would have been resolved. What instead happened was a number of launches occurred, and nobody cared because it wasn't important. Then someone in the FAA saw they didn't have the approval form, and decided to move to a fine. This could be normal, but it seems like this should have been an email.
> my understanding of government fines is they are usually reserved for willful deceit or negligence.
Having a process that allows unapproved changes to go through three times in two launches without confirmation is negligent
> This sounds like there was 40 different forms to fill out
They aren't getting in trouble for filling out the forms wrong. It sounds more like SpaceX knew exactly what to file and did so, and that the problem was not waiting for an approval.
> FAA doesn't have their T-2 poll because SpaceX thought it wasn't part of the launch procedure anymore.
You're breezing over the fact that they also controlled the launch from a brand new and unapproved control center.
> What instead happened was a number of launches occurred, and nobody cared because it wasn't important.
you gotta rtfa man, there were 3 violations across two launches with no overlap. We don't know how the FAA noticed, but they did so within a single launch on all counts.
Secondarily, if the FAA didn't do this they would be roasted for playing favorites with SpaceX.