FAA's Launch-Reentry Regulatory Oversight Under Fire, 'at a Breaking Point'

The FAA's space launch and reentry regulatory regime was criticized Wednesday during a Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee hearing, with space launch companies and experts testifying that FAA changes haven't resulted in more streamlined launch license reviews. Several urged more agency funding and staffing. There also were multiple requests for a one-stop-shop for commercial space activity regulatory authorizations.

The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation launch and reentry licensing framework "is in great distress," said William Gerstenmaier, SpaceX vice president-build and flight reliability. "We're at a breaking point" due to a lack of resources and regulatory flexibility, he said. "Licensing, including environmental approval often takes longer than rocket development; this should never happen," he said, saying SpaceX's Starship, Falcon and Dragon rocket programs face bureaucratic and regulatory challenges unrelated to public safety. He said SpaceX, looking to accomplish 100 launches this year, aims to complete 144 in 2024.

Getting a launch or reentry license is a multiyear effort, said space consultant Caryn Schenewerk. She said FAA reforms resulted in FAA license reviews being more cumbersome and costly, rather than less. Phil Joyce, senior vice president of Blue Origin's New Shepard Business Unit, said "both the substance and administration" of launch regulations should be improved. That the FAA needs more funding to deal with oversight of the increased cadence and number of commercial space launches "is a great problem to have," he said.

Ranking member Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said he hopes his Launch Communications Act (S-1648), advanced by Senate Commerce in July, could come to a floor vote this week. He said the FAA and Commerce should take similar approaches to launch authorizations that the legislation would have the FCC take for authorizing launch spectrum.

"Too many agencies are involved" in commercial space regulation, slowing technological advancements, said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, backing "a true one-stop shop for the regulation and licensing of commercial space activities [in order to] make the United States the destination of choice for commercial space companies looking to set up shop." He criticized Fish and Wildlife Services for its ongoing investigation of possible environmental effects from a SpaceX Starship launch failure in April in Texas, saying it and other agencies "have infected themselves into the launch licensing process."

Novel activities like private space stations, lunar bases and in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing don't clearly fall under FCC, FAA or NOAA regulatory jurisdiction, said Schenewerk. She said Commerce's Office of Space Commerce would be the obvious home for that.

There also were repeated calls during the hearing for extending the moratorium restricting the FAA's ability to regulate commercial crewed spaceflight. That moratorium expires Jan. 1. The rationale for that moratorium was that regulatory burdens "on a relatively new industry and rapidly evolving industry could slow innovation ... and that's still true today," said Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic vice president-government affairs and research. More time would allow a transition period to collect data that would inform future safety frameworks and what areas the agency should regulate, she said.