Commercial Space Transportation

The responsibilities of the FAA discussed above grew and were assumed over time as civilian aviation sector activities developed. All of these responsibilities relate to civil aviation operations occurring on the surface of the earth and within the earth’s atmosphere. When the United States began operations beyond the earth’s atmosphere with the first U. S. space launch in 1958, and for many years thereafter, all U. S. space activities were the exclu­sive province of either NASA or the military.

With the passage by Congress of the Com­mercial Space Launch Act of 1985, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (referred to as FAA/AST) was created within the FAA. Under this statute, AST has the responsibility to:

* Regulate the commercial space transporta­tion industry, only to the extent necessary to

ensure compliance with international obliga­tions of the United States and to protect the public health and safety, safety of property, and national security and foreign policy interests of the United States;

• Encourage, facilitate, and promote commer­cial space launches by the private sector;

• Recommend appropriate changes in federal statutes, treaties, regulations, policies, plans, and procedures;

• Facilitate the strengthening and expansion of the United States space transportation infrastructure.

FAA/AST is organized into three divisions:

• Space Systems Development Division (AST-100)

® Licensing and Safety Division (AST-200)

• Systems Engineering and Training Division (AST-300)

Because the FAA has been assigned an entirely new role in aviation safety, staffing and expertise concerns have been expressed both within and out­side the agency. This has been compounded by the fact that, while the original thrust of the FAA’s over­sight related to unmanned launches of expendable launch vehicles, commercial space activity is rapidly expanding into space tourism, so that the FAA’s responsibility for licensing reusable launch vehicle missions will need to expand correspondingly. As of the end of 2009, FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation had a staff of 71 full-time employees, including 12 new aerospace engineers, and had established field offices at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

For a more thorough discussion of commer­cial space launch activities in the United States and the role of FAA/AST, please refer to Chapter 41.