Wed, Jun 13, 2018
Appropriators Say Office Should Streamline The Regulatory Process
A bill reported out of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee calls for a $2.4 million increase for the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. The nearly $25 million budget for the AST is $3.4 million more than requested by the Trump administration, and slightly higher than the amount approved by the House Appropriations Committee in May.
In a report accompanying the request, the committee said that the AST needs to become more efficient in dealing with the increasing number of commercial space activity rather than just hiring additional people to work within the existing licensing process, according to Space News.
“While the Committee anticipates a reasonable expansion of the workforce at the Office of Commercial Space Transportation [AST] to meet increasing volume of license applications,” the report states, “it is essential that AST significantly streamline its licensing approach and regulations so that industry growth doesn’t necessitate one-for-one bureaucratic growth.”
The FAA is working on reforms to its process of licensing launch operations as called for in President Trump's Space Policy Directive 2, which he signed May 24. The changes under consideration include a single license for a vehicle's launch or reentry regardless of location, and adding more flexible "performance-based criteria" for licensing.
The policy calls on the U.S. Department of Transportation to publish an NPRM for the changes not later than February 1, 2019.
(Image from file)
More News
Aero Linx: JAARS Nearly 1.5 billion people, using more than 5,500 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language. Many of these people live in the most remote parts of>[...]
'Airplane Bounced Twice On The Grass Runway, Resulting In The Nose Wheel Separating From The Airplane...' Analysis: The pilot reported, “upon touchdown, the plane jumped back>[...]
"Burt is best known to the public for his historic designs of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, and GlobalFlyer, but for EAA members and aviation aficionados, his unique concepts began more t>[...]
"Polaris Dawn, the first of the program’s three human spaceflight missions, is targeted to launch to orbit no earlier than summer 2024. During the five-day mission, the crew >[...]
There Are SO Many Ways To Get YOUR Aero-News! It’s been a while since we have reminded everyone about all the ways we offer your daily dose of aviation news on-the-go...so he>[...]