The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984

Aside from telecommunications, private enter­prise remained largely on the sidelines of space operations. The “government only” perception began to change during the 1980s. Europe’s Arianespace began offering launch services in 1983. This was followed by President Reagan’s Executive Order 12465 signed in 1984, which authorized U. S. commercial space launch activity with the words “in order to encourage, facilitate, and coordinate the development of commercial expendable launch vehicle (ELV) operations by private United States enterprises.” Up to that time, all U. S. commercial satellites had been launched on rockets owned and operated by the United States government. The Executive Order was followed by passage in Congress of the Commercial Space Launch Act that same year, which directed the Department of Transportation to “encourage, facilitate, and promote commer­cial space launches.” The DOT set up the Office of Commercial Space Transportation to address the transition from government to commercial operations. In 1989, the U. S. government decided to stop launching commercial payloads on the Space Shuttle, in part because of the Challenger disaster that occurred in 1986. This spurred com­mercial launch interest even more.

The Commercial Space Launch Act estab­lished a comprehensive licensing structure that enabled launch operators to comply quickly and efficiently with existing federal regulations. The statute also authorized the licensing of nonfed­eral launch sites, from which commercial space launches would occur, in addition to commercial launches from federal sites. In 1995, the licensing responsibility was transferred from the DOT to the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transpor­tation (FAA/AST), which now licenses and regu­lates U. S. commercial space launch and reentry activity, including launch vehicles. It also licenses nonfederal launch sites. But even with the man­date given to FAA/AST, there were at least 12 other federal bureaus identified that could have some jurisdiction in regulating space activities. In fact, it was not clear under existing law that a pri­vate company could legally land a launched vehi­cle back in the United States. There was clearly a need for clarification of the limits of commercial space law and its regulation by FAA/AST.