FAA, FCC, Other Federal Entities Find Ways To Further Engage Commercial Space Launch

The government continues to take steps to enhance partnerships in commercial space launches, said Maj. Justin Sutherland, a chief in the Air Force Space Operations Division. The government is taking the initial steps to implement the provisions on launch and space vehicles in the FY13 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed in January, he said Tuesday at a Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington.

The NDAA will allow government to accept non-federal contributions to support the Department of Defense space transportation infrastructure, Sutherland said. The NDAA also requires congressional appropriation, he said. It enables partnerships to expand launch and test opportunities, make launches and tests more affordable and maximizes infrastructure improvements, he said. The language “recognizes that commercial contributions can benefit national space launch and test range infrastructure,” he added.

The Satellite Industry Association has tracked issues regarding on-orbit satellite requirements and FCC proceedings on small satellites (CD March 18 p11) and giving the commercial space industry faster access to certain spectrum bands for launches (CD May 10 p1), said SIA President Patricia Cooper. The commission is considering whether to look at regulatory regimes for small satellites that are experimental and not for communication, she said. This “brings the FCC actively into the broader space oversight realm,” she said. “The FCC is starting to explore its regulatory role that it has had on an experimental basis and regularizing that.” Daniel Collins, chief operating officer at United Launch Alliance, cautioned against heavy regulations in the launch space. “The more launches we get through, and the smaller the infrastructure, the more affordable launch is going to be,” he said. With more regulations, the cost of launch will go up and it will be harder to use a central range where companies can operate efficiently and effectively, he said.

The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation wants to amend Federal Aviation Regulations on reciprocal waiver of claims requirements, said Randy Repcheck, a deputy manager in the Regulations and Analysis Division of the FAA. These waivers help reduce litigation, he said. Under current law, every customer has to sign a cross waiver with the launch operator and FAA, he said. There will be a number of launches with multiple customers, he said. “It should be required for licensees to sign cross waivers with customers that have directly contracted with them.” A “customer of a customer” should sign a waiver only with the original customer and not all the launch participants, he said. The office may open a rulemaking procedure on changing the rule within a few months, Repcheck added.

Congress and the Obama administration are advancing implementation of an NDAA provision that removes some commercial satellites from the U.S. munitions list (USML) to the Commerce Control List (CCL) as part of the reform effort of International Traffic in Arms Regulations control, some government officials said. For several years, Congress didn’t have an incentive to take certain satellite-related items from the USML, said David Fite, minority staffer for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. What changed is that Congress realized market share was going down and “export controls are not doing what we think they're doing, as well as the onset of ITAR-free satellites being marketed and sold by foreign competitors, said Fite. He helped draft a bill from Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that was included in the NDAA.

The administration is moving very quickly, Fite said. The next step involves the White House sending a “38(f)” notification to the House Foreign Affairs Committee to review the proposed items that are to be removed from the munitions list, he said. “I don’t expect anymore congressional problems."

The Commerce Department will seek comment on the proposed items for removal from the munitions list, said Kevin Wolf, assistant Commerce Secretary for export administration at the Bureau of Industry & Security. A forthcoming Federal Register notice will propose transferring satellites, including commercial communications satellites, planetary rovers and ground control systems, and components of satellite buses and payloads common to those satellites, over to the CCL, he said. When the comment period closes, the Commerce, Homeland Security and State departments will review the comments, he said. “If everything goes smoothly, November or December is the earliest that a final rule would be ready.”