Commercial Spaceflight Regulations Still a Challenge for FAA
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office finds that challenges remain for the FAA when it comes to commercial spaceflight regulations.
According to the report, while the FAA recently updated and streamlined its launch and reentry licensing regulations, it has made less progress on other key commercial spaceflight regulations. The new licensing regulations, issued in December 2020, replaced prescriptive requirements—in which a certain technology or action was required—with a performance-based regulatory framework, which provides applicants flexibility in how they achieve required outcomes, such as a specific level of safety.
Given its focus on the licensing regulations, FAA placed on hold revisions to other regulations governing commercial space transportation—revisions which, according to FAA officials, are warranted given the industry's evolution. For example, the FAA has not yet begun to revise its financial responsibility regulations, which require launch companies conducting FAA-licensed launches to purchase insurance to cover damage to third parties in case of a launch mishap. According to FAA officials, revising these commercial spaceflight regulations is their next planned rulemaking, and when finalized will respond to GAO's recommendations to improve FAA's methodologies for evaluating and calculating potential third-party losses from launch and reentry mishaps and help ensure the federal government is not exposed to greater liability than expected.
The FAA also faces ongoing challenges regulating an evolving industry. In particular, as GAO previously reported, the FAA continues to face the challenge of whether and when to regulate the safety of crew and spaceflight participants. While some companies have announced plans to take tourists to space within the next several years, the FAA is prohibited by statute from regulating crew and passenger safety before 2023, except in response to events that caused or posed a risk of serious or fatal injury. However, the FAA has taken some steps in anticipation of the expiration of the statutory moratorium, such as working with its industry advisory committee to develop and disseminate human spaceflight best practices.
The FAA also has taken some steps to help the agency keep pace with changes in the industry. For example, in response to recommendations GAO made in 2019, FAA recently assessed its workforce to identify skills and competencies that are needed among its workforce and is working to improve its workload projections to better account for the full range of its regulatory activities and the timeline of its licensing process. Such efforts are critical for ensuring the FAA can better anticipate and respond to the growing and evolving commercial space industry and FAA's emerging workforce needs.
GAO made several recommendations in its prior reports, including that FAA improve AST's workforce planning and address weaknesses in FAA's methodologies for evaluating and calculating potential third-party losses from launch and reentry mishaps. Progress has been made in addressing some of these recommendations. Continued attention is needed to ensure that the remainder of these recommendations are fully addressed in future commercial spaceflight regulations.
The GAO conducted the study because the commercial space transportation industry provides launch services for government and private customers that carry objects, such as satellites and vehicles with scientific research, or passengers to or from space. Continued growth and evolution in the industry is expected as reliance on space-based applications increases. Within the FAA, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) is charged both with overseeing the industry, including licensing and monitoring launch vehicle operations, and promoting the industry.
(Source: GAO. Image from file)