FAA Promising Reforms to Help Speed Pace of Commercial Space Launches
The FAA is acting to accommodate the increasing pace of commercial space launches, though the regulator also needs to see increased industry focus on safety, acting Administrator Dan Elwell said Wednesday at the annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference. The agency "cannot be a rubber stamp nor ... a hurdle," he said.
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Elwell said the agency's role is ensuring both airspace safety and equal access, and commercial space launch needs increasingly will be afforded that access. He said the agency set up a rulemaking committee to help it deal with competing priorities for airspace access. The FAA also is testing a space data integrator that should lead to a reduced amount of airspace that has to be blocked off for space launches and result in more-efficient release of blocked airspace.
It has a plan for streamlining its launch licensing steps, creating a consolidated system and speeding the application review process, Elwell said. In the interim, there will be more immediate relief as the agency works to eliminate the biggest sources of waiver requests, improve its application development and reduce paperwork, he said.
Repeatable launches will put particular pressure on airspace management, said Blue Origin Vice President-Test and Flight Operations Scott Henderson. He said every Blue Origin test launch from its private launch range in rural Texas has had some airspace problem such as commercial or military aircraft entering the blocked-off area. Current launch sites for orbital rockets all sit in areas heavily trafficked by aircraft, meaning orbital launches will face an even larger airspace problem, he said. Mike Cirillo, Airlines for America managing director-air traffic management, said the commercial space industry needs to involve itself in the national airspace system network of air navigation facilities and airports. "When we don't communicate ... that's where animosity begins to build," Cirillo said. "We want to work with this industry."
As the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee focuses on 21st century transportation issues, space transportation should be part of that, said Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa. He said Congress looks forward to regulatory reform recommendations from the National Space Council (NSC) (see 1710050042) and will consider any legislative proposals. He said the pace of commercial launches is increasing, but resources aren't available to boost the FAA budget in lockstep, so it has to become more efficient. He said ongoing congressional and industry discussions of placement of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation -- whether remaining in the FAA or reporting directly to the transportation secretary -- haven't come to consensus.
The FAA licensed 26 commercial launches and re-entries last year, the busiest year ever, with this year likely to exceed that by “a significant number,” said FAA commercial space transportation head George Nield. With the 2018 traffic involving seven kinds of launch vehicles from five companies, keeping pace is a major challenge, Nield said.
The NSC assigned the Commerce and Transportation departments to recommend streamlined regulations, and options include making regulations more performance-based than prescriptive, allowing multiple launch sites under a single license and shortening the application review time from 180 days to “something much less,” Nield said. He said commercial, civil and national security space issues like regulatory streamlining and space traffic management need to be addressed across agencies, something the government hasn't done, but could be tackled through the NSC.
The NSC is working well with other White House offices, but a chief hurdle is the number of unfilled critical administration positions involving space, ranging from the NASA administrator to particular jobs at Defense and State, said NSC Executive Secretary Scott Pace. He said U.S. export controls are struggling to keep up with rapidly changing space-related technologies in areas such as remote sensing. He said the nation needs to be narrower about what tech it decides to control and have a more-liberal approach to licensing but also better capabilities for assessing what tech could be a threat.
U.S. share of internationally competed orbital launches has been growing, from 24 percent in 2015 to 41 percent in 2016 and 54 percent last year, said Bryce Space analyst Phil Smith. That's largely due to SpaceX activity, though other companies like Lockheed Martin "are stepping up," he said. Forty-six orbital launch vehicles are in operation worldwide, with 30 more planning to come online within the next five years, he said.