NASA and FAA Team To Streamline, Regulate Commercial Space Access 57
coondoggie writes "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA today said they signed an agreement to coordinate standards for commercial space travel of government and non-government astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station (ISS). The main goals of the agreement are to establish a framework for the emerging commercial US space industry to help streamline requirements and multiple sets of standards and ultimately to regulate public and crew safety."
Also... (Score:2, Funny)
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This will totally work, because there is no place else to launch a rocket except within the continental US.
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This will totally work, because there is no place else to launch a rocket except within the continental US.
Right.
In other news: Somolian Space Pirates increase launches
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For crying out loud... they're only going to set standards and regulate launches from the US. They don't claim to attempt to regulate Russian or Chinese launches. It's no different between normal aircraft, which are under US jurisdiction when they're over US territory. I would imaging if Russia had private space companies, it would regulate them as well.
I hope that doesn't work the normal way... (Score:5, Insightful)
The intelligence of a group can be determined by finding the IQ of the least intelligent member of the group, and dividing that number by the total people in the group.
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"Yes sir, I think you are correct in saying that every space flight that takes off requires 500 packages of Twizzlers, never mind that you just received a large check from Nestle."
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The intelligence of a group can be determined by finding the IQ of the least intelligent member of the group, and dividing that number by the total people in the group.
Like...contributors to Linux source code? (Or, Apple source code, or Microsoft source code, BeOS source code...etc)
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Let's hope that they emphasize the "streamline" and minimize the "regulate". Look at how much both the FAA and NASA accomplished in the beginning, then look at how (relatively) little they have accomplished now that they are huge bureaucracies. Then look again at how much small operations, without all the bureaucracy and regulation, have accomplished. Like Scaled Composites and SpaceX.
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Yes, they'll put in regulations that protect the incumbents and hamstring the upstarts.
I was looking recently into why payment processors suck so much and asking "why hasn't this been fixed by competition?" A friend looked into the regulations and came back with a cost of $80M to meet bonding and regulatory requirements to start a new one. Hence, a startup will never be able to create competitive pressure to fix the problems. As somebody put it on a parallel thread, we'
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Re:Why two agencies? (Score:5, Funny)
Why not assign the management of the nation's airspace to the Secretary of the Interior.
Um... because the nation's airspace is outside?
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Oh, I guess you haven't heard. I was under the impression that everyone had heard.
QUICK! (Score:2)
FAA+NASA+TSA (Score:5, Funny)
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There really are some necessary regulations that need to be enforced. First, they need to make sure they prevent junking up low earth orbits by making sure there are a minimum number of bits coming off anything that might end up in orbit, something NASA has the most experience with. Second, they need to make sure launch and recovery operations are properly coordinated with air traffic, which is of concern to the FAA.
I'm sure there are a whole pile of issues that would be best to get into the FAA's regulat
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Yeah, just like the airplane manufacturers which are frozen in place with crippled 1950's era technology... oh wait, they aren't.
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Seems to me that everytime your regulators get involved, we wind up with just a few remaining zombie companies on government life support. This is the case with every industry from aerospace to automotive to financial. And those big boys have their c
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First, they need to make sure they prevent junking up low earth orbits by making sure there are a minimum number of bits coming off anything that might end up in orbit, something NASA has the most experience with.
I expect this is already quite high on their list of things to take into account even without the government imposing stacks of paperwork on them. Can't get customers if they're all afraid of getting shotgunned to death in orbit.
Second, they need to make sure launch and recovery operations are properly coordinated with air traffic, which is of concern to the FAA.
They're already required to work with the FAA in this regard.
Query (Score:2)
Answer: "...establish a framework for the emerging commercial US space industry to help streamline requirements and multiple sets of standards and ultimately to regulate public and crew safety."
Re:Query (Score:5, Insightful)
Actual Answer: Leave the regulatory regime completely undefined so that no one will risk launching for fear of over-restrictive 'DO SOMETHING!' regulations killing their business model after they've already settled on an approach.
Its far better to define reasonable regulations right now than wait for poorly thought out ones to be implemented later when it becomes clear they're necessary.
Also, the FAA AST (Office of Commercial Space) folks are very supportive of getting a real industry off the ground. They're space enthusiasts, not charicatures of empire-building bureacrats.
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Its far better to define reasonable regulations right now than wait for poorly thought out ones to be implemented later when it becomes clear they're necessary.
Yes, assuming *reasonable* regulations are made. I don't have much faith in that.
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Yes, assuming *reasonable* regulations are made. I don't have much faith in that.
The FAA has done a fair job of regulating the airline industry. The EPA did a damned good job of cleaning up ithe toxic mess that was the USA before the EPA was established. The FDA does a pretty good job regulating medicines (not that they're perfect) and they also do a fair job, even understaffed, of inspecting the foold supply.
OTOH, local government regs are often incredibly stupid. Don't get your governments confused. The b
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Meanwhile NASA and the FAA can carry on with their "If we had any commercial space industry, it would behave just so" fantasies in peace. To quote the great philosopher Watterson, designing the snow fort is the fun part.
Re:Query (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually the existing pioneers, including Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR, and some others of whom you (should) have heard, are already working with the FAA and they report that the experience has not been too painful. I can't help worrying when NASA wants to get in on the act, though. NASA's main product is paper, with a few space vehicles as unintentional by-products, and they won't want to disappoint anyone ....
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Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR, and some others of whom you (should) have heard, are already working with the FAA and they report that the experience has not been too painful.
That's because the risks have been low. When you start putting people on top of thousands of tons of explosive propellant, that's when the government starts stepping in and messing everything up.
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The government should not be stepping in on behalf of the people on top of the rocket. Those people presumably are adults and have balanced the risks they are taking against the rewarding experience of flying into space.
It's the people that live under the rocket that need some regulation. Presumably launching rockets out over water should minimize many of the risks to the public, but it would still be useful to have the government provide some oversight to minimize the chance of 100's of tons of high expl
This was foretold. (Score:3)
Anticipated by The Goons (Score:3)
FX:
[plane engine starting, a few misfires, backfires. It stalls, followed by lots of bits falling off]
Seagoon:
Well, what shall we build now?
McChisholm:
Ah, M-mister Seagoon! Did you no notice? A moment before it fell to bits, it rose seven feet off the ground!
Seagoon:
Correction, five feet. Two of those feet were mine!
McChisholm:
If, if you ask me, sir, we've invented the hairyplane.
FX:
[phone rings, receiver being picked up]
Seagoon:
Hello?
Grytpype-Thynne:
[speaking over telephone] I hear you've invented the aeroplane.
Seagoon:
Who's this speaking?
Grytpype-Thynne:
The Air Ministry.
The Goon Show
Series 7, Episode 15
First broadcast on January 10, 1957. Script by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens
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Leave it the fuck alone, government.
That's not how government works.
> If it moves, tax it.
> If it is still moving, regulate it.
> If it has stopped moving, subsidize it through sweetheart government deals, loans, and giveaways that benefit your campaign contributors while eliminating competition from small players, erecting barriers to entry, and screwing over any private people/entities that had already invested unless it's a labor union...they automatically go to the front of the line of the taxpayer-funded gravy train.
Strat
And where is TSA and the DHS in all of this! (Score:1)
I can't wait until those two TLAs get involved - there goes space flight! Buried under a mountain of bureaucratic nonsense so deep, no rocket will be able to get off the ground!
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You misunderstand. Rockets will fly, but only those of well-connected, mega-corporations who can surmount the barriers to entry erected by the government on their behalf.
I can see how it is going to turn out. (Score:3)
The lol in this (Score:2)
Overstepping Authority (Score:1)
The FAA only has legal authority to regulate air travel operations up to and including 60,000 feet. Even if NASA wanted to delegate low Earth orbit activities to the FAA, the FAA still couldn't do it, because it lacks the authority.
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