WASHINGTON — Industry officials used a Senate hearing to request reforms to the Federal Aviation Administration’s launch licensing process, warning of dire commercial and geopolitical implications if changes aren’t made.
Witnesses at a hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee Oct. 18 argued that the strong growth the industry has seen in the last several years is in jeopardy because of the strain on the FAA office that regulates launches as well as the implementation of current and potential future regulations.
“The pace of American regulation must match the pace of American innovation. We are falling behind,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX. “We are at a breaking point.”
Gerstenmaier and other witnesses called for providing the FAA’s commercial space transportation office, known as AST, with additional resources. He specifically recommended doubling AST’s budget, $37.9 million in fiscal year 2023, provided those additional resources go exclusively to the office’s licensing work.
Those additional resources and other regulatory reforms, like accelerated reviews of launch licenses, are needed to keep the company on track. Gerstenmaier said the company continued to target up to 100 launches this year — it has performed 75 so far this year, including the Starship test flight — and 144 next year.
The changes are also needed to keep its work on the lunar lander version of Starship on track. “When we have regulatory delays, such as we’re facing right now, that slows down developmental test flights and ultimately slows down our support to NASA and slows down our support for what we need to do to return humans back to the surface of the moon again,” he warned. “A continuous delay in each and every test flight adds up and, eventually, we will lose our lead and we will see China land on the moon before we do.”
The five witnesses at the hearing…
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