Commercial Spaceflight Safety Regulations Report Released by RAND
RAND Corporation has published a Commercial Spaceflight Safety and Regulations Report requested by the US Congress.
The moratorium commercial spaceflight safety regulations imposed by the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 sunsets on October 1 this year. If it is allowed to expire, the FAA will have the ability to create such regulations going forward.
The RAND researchers found that it would be appropriate to allow the current law to expire, and the FAA should institute Space Aerospace Rulemaking Committees. Additionally, the researchers said that Congress should provide additional resources to the FAA for those committees and regulatory actions.
According to the report, readiness for commercial spaceflight safety regulations depends on the following factors:
access to, and understanding of, the regulatory process;
security of regulatory support;
the effectiveness of the regulatory support for the technology;
environmental effects, costs, and security issues related to the regulation;
the ability to pass the regulation
Commercial Spaceflight Safety Regulations Report shows Work Remains to be Done
The RAND researchers determined that work remains to be done by standards development organizations (SDOs) which have developed voluntary standards related to commercial spaceflight that could affect participant safety. They found that there are still many concerns among stakeholders about the slow pace of the process, and that many companies have adopted their own safety practices that may or may not involve SDO standards. In addition, it is difficult to assess what those specific company standards might be because the companies view them as proprietary.
The RAND researchers recommended the following
The FAA moratorium on Commercial Spaceflight Safety Regulations should be allowed to expire
Sufficient resources should be supplied to the FAA for the development of new regulations
Space Aerospace Rulemaking Committees should be established
Development of key metric development while continuing voluntary consensus standards
Limited formal rulemaking should be considered
The research was sponsored by the FAA.
(Source: RAND Social and Economic Well Being. Images from file)