LAS VEGAS — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial spaceflight office expects current restrictions on his ability to regulate safety of spaceflight participants to be extended past this year.
Speaking on a panel at AIAA’s ASCEND conference Oct. 25, Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said he anticipated the “learning period” to be extended beyond its current Jan. 1 expiration. The learning period limits the ability of the FAA to enact regulations regarding the safety of spaceflight participants on commercial spacecraft.
“We expect it will be pushed out further. How far out we don’t know,” he said, with different projections from different people.
A panel of industry witnesses endorsed another extension of the learning period at an Oct. 19 Senate hearing. They did not offer a consensus about how long it should be extended beyond it being several years, including one estimate of eight years.
One of those witnesses was Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, and he reiterated that recommendation on the ASCEND panel. “The flight rate is fairly low,” he explained, with a diversity of technical approaches. “I think it’s tough to put all of those pieces together.”
While there may be acceptance that the learning period will be extended, there was not agreement that it should. “A methodical, thoughtful approach to regulation is what’s needed,” said Doug Ligor of the Aerospace Corporation, which released a report in April that recommended Congress let the learning period expire. “You can do it without a moratorium.”
He went further, calling the learning period unnecessary in the first place. “The idea that you need a moratorium was suspect to us from the beginning,” he said, noting that such restrictions are not found in other industries. “The moratorium was an aberration.”
Industry officials…
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