Assessing the Readiness for Human Commercial Spaceflight Safety Regulations

📖 The Scoop

At Congress's request, RAND researchers assessed the progress that the commercial spaceflight industry has made in adopting voluntary safety standards, the industry's progress in meeting key metrics set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2017, and whether the industry has matured such that areas identified in FAA reports are ready for regulatory action. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 imposes a moratorium on safety regulations until October 1, 2023. The FAA will be authorized to propose and issue regulations upon expiration of the moratorium (if it is allowed to expire). The RAND team reviewed the existing literature and public data. They also conducted interviews with subject-matter experts and stakeholders across the space domain, including government, industry, and standards development organizations. In the authors' assessment, the readiness of the commercial space industry for regulation, or for further development of voluntary consensus standards, does not only depend on the progress of adopting standards and meeting metrics. Regulatory readiness depends also on five key 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; and the ability to pass the regulation. The authors found that regulatory action is appropriate in the following form: allowing the moratorium to expire as per current law, continuing the development of voluntary consensus standards, and instituting Space Aerospace Rulemaking Committees. These regulatory actions should be accompanied by additional resourcing of the FAA.

Genre: Business & Economics / Workplace Culture (fancy, right?)