The Federal
Aviation Administration is set to publicly unveil a
special permit aimed at helping the reusable suborbital rocket industry grow, while
speeding up the development of passenger-carrying spaceships.
The "experimental-class"
permit rules are to be open for public comment and discussed May 26 at an open
meeting of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) at the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Spearheading
the guidelines is the Office of the Associate
Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST), the only space-related
line of business within the FAA and under the wing of the U.S. Department of
Transportation.
On December
23, 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law the Commercial Space Launch
Amendments Act of 2004 (CSLAA). That Act advances the development of the
emerging commercial space flight industry and makes the DOT and the FAA
responsible for regulating private human space flight.
The CSLAA
establishes, among other functions, an experimental permit regime for
developmental reusable suborbital rockets. Before the Act, a license was the
only mechanism available to the FAA to okay launch or reentry. Under the CSLAA,
an experimental permit may be used.
Go out and fly
The
guidelines fulfill the FAA's requirement to provide direction on the
implementation of the CSLAA with respect to experimental permits before issuing
regulations. The guidelines are not binding, and until regulations called for
in the CSLAA are issued, the FAA will issue permits on a case-by-case basis.
"We're
hoping that this allows the reusable launch vehicle developers to build their
vehicles and start flying without too much regulatory burden," said Randy
Repcheck, Deputy Manager in AST's Systems Engineering and Training Division. He
is the team leader on the experimental permit project.
"That's the
goal of these guidelines. We're protecting public health and safety, but we're
trying to do so in a reduced manner so that reusable launch vehicle developers
can go out and fly," Repcheck told SPACE.com.
Permit guidelines
In part,
the FAA "Guidelines for Experimental Permits for Reusable Suborbital Rockets"
apply to a person proposing to launch or reenter a reusable suborbital rocket
solely for the following reasons:
- Conducting research and
development to test new design concepts, new equipment, or new operating
techniques;
- Showing compliance with
requirements as part of the process for obtaining a license; or
- Crew training prior to
obtaining a license for a launch or reentry using the design of the rocket
for which the permit would be issued.
The wide-ranging
guidelines to be issued allow the FAA to issue a permit to an applicant, under
a set of terms, including:
- The FAA has found that the
applicant is capable of conducting its proposed launch or reentry without
jeopardizing public health and safety, the safety of property, or any
national security or foreign policy interest of the United States;
- The FAA issues an experimental
permit authorizing an unlimited number of launches or reentries for a
particular suborbital rocket design;
- One permit may be issued to an
applicant to operate multiple vehicles of a particular reusable suborbital
rocket design;
- The FAA will identify in the
experimental permit the type of changes that the "permittee" may make to
the reusable suborbital rocket design without invalidating the permit.
The
duration of an experimental permit will be one year from the date the permit is
issued. A permittee may apply to renew its permit.
Moment in history
These
guidelines, Repcheck said, permit reusable launch vehicle (RLV) developers to
collect data helpful in obtaining a license to start flying paying customers.
The
experimental-class permits are to be available until the final regulations are
issued.
That final
rulemaking will, by law, be issued in late June 2006. There will be a notice of
proposed rulemaking issued in December of this year, open to the public and
industry for comment, Repcheck noted.
"The FAA
and AST recognize that this is an emerging field, much like in the days of
barnstorming," said Hank Price, an FAA spokesperson. "We need to have in mind
ways to help this industry grow and to emerge...and that's the balance we think
we're achieving here. Protecting the uninvolved public but also helping this
industry to grow."
Repcheck
said there's always a challenge in writing regulations and attempting to please
different constituents, be they the public, industry and the safety community.
"We're trying to bridge all of those...bridging the airplane world with the
rocket world," he said.
"It seems
to be a moment in history," Repcheck concluded. "We certainly hope it is.
That's what we're all hoping for here."
Level of risk
Speaking prior to release of the guidelines, Patricia Grace
Smith, AST's Associate Administrator said the intent of the rules are to give
space launch vehicle developers the ability to experiment and test their
vehicles in much the same way that airplane developers do.
"It will be a step beneath the full fledge license and will
allow the opportunity for the developers to take a level of risk," Smith told SPACE.com last week. "We're looking for
ways to become more flexible in regulating the industry," she explained.
DOT's chief, Secretary Norman Mineta, has also spotlighted
the new guidelines, noting last week that they "will shorten the time and
lessen the burden on launch vehicle developers much like the aviation community
has for experimental aircraft."
While Mineta's office has the responsibility to protect
public safety, "our approach at the Department of Transportation is to allow
this industry the freedom to develop, mindful that it is still in its infancy,"
he said.
Passenger
traffic
The new guidelines come at a time when the era of personal
suborbital spaceflight is clearly taking shape. Flights to the edge of space by
the piloted SpaceShipOne last year have prodded policymakers into action.
Back-to-back flights of the craft led to grabbing the $10 million Ansari X
Prize purse by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California.
Prompted by the privately-financed suborbital hops is the
creation of Virgin Galactic by adventurer and high-roller, Sir Richard Branson.
Virgin Galactic has cut a deal with the makers of
SpaceShipOne to build a fleet of five passenger-hauling suborbital vehicles.
Even before such a vehicle takes to the air, the space travel operator has more
than 7,000 requests for initial reservations and about 1,500 down payments on
the $200,000 per seat price tag.
AST's Smith said last week at the 24th
International Space Development Conference, sponsored by the National Space
Society, that the suborbital space tourism business has the potential to handle
15,000 passengers and generate $700 million in revenues per year by 2021.
advertisement
