WASHINGTON (House Science Committee PR) – Today, Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) sent a letter [see below] to President Biden expressing their concerns regarding the Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for commercial space accident investigation that was issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
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WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Penn. (ASTM PR) — With support from industry and government leaders, ASTM International will host an organizational meeting to potentially create a new technical committee that develops voluntary consensus standards for commercial spaceflight.
This meeting comes in part as a result of the updated U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 (CSLCA). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) is recommending the organization of the new group.
CSF President Eric Stallmer released the following statement calling on Congress to quickly pass H.R. 2262, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act: “CSF applauds the House and Senate negotiators for the tremendous work and effort they put into crafting the bipartisan, bicameral U.S Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (H.R. 2262). When the CSLA was updated 11 years ago, Congress codified a regulatory regime that led to an unparalleled level of investment, innovation, […]
18th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference Wednesday, February 04, 2015 7:30 AM – Thursday, February 05, 2015 5:00 PM (Eastern Time) National Housing Center 1201 15th Street, NW Washington, District of Columbia 20005 United States For the latest information and dialogue on U.S. commercial launch activities, commercial human spaceflight, commercial crew, and commercial spaceports, join us in Washington, DC at the National Housing Center for the 18th Annual FAA […]
The FAA has proposed changing the way it calculates collective risk limits for commercial launches and reentries. A brief summary is reproduced below. For more information, visit the entry in the Federal Register. Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking Summary The FAA proposes to amend the collective risk limits for commercial launches and reentries. Under this proposal, the FAA would separate its expected-number-of-casualties (E c) limits for launches and reentries. For commercial […]
Artist’s conception of a Bigelow lunar habitat. (Credit: Bigelow Aerospace)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Building on the progress of NASA’s partnerships with the U.S. commercial space industry to develop new spacecraft and rockets capable of delivering cargo, and soon, astronauts to low Earth orbit, the agency is now looking for opportunities to spur commercial cargo transportation capabilities to the surface of the moon.
NASA has released an announcement seeking proposals to partner in the development of reliable and cost-effective commercial robotic lunar lander capabilities that will enable the delivery of payloads to the lunar surface. Such capabilities could support commercial activities on the moon while enabling new science and exploration missions of interest to NASA and the larger scientific and academic communities.
Video Caption: Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) –- On today’s “Regnomix,” Former NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao, Space Adventures President Tom Shelley and Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson discuss Spacex’s successful launch of a satellite and the future of private space travel. They speak with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg) EDITOR’S NOTE: An interesting little revelation here that SpaceX is not profitable, but it is cash flow positive. […]
Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stu Witt (Credit: Bill Deaver)
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Space on Wednesday, Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stu Witt urged legislators to extend the “learning period” for new space systems to eight years, remove suborbital tourism vehicles from the ITAR list, and to make permanent the risk-sharing launch indemnification in which the government covers damages from private space missions above a certain level.
“This industry needs regulatory certainty,” Witt said in his prepared remarks. “But the learning period restriction on unsubstantiated safety regulations expires in less than two years and the risk-sharing (indemnification) regime expires at the end of next month. That regulatory uncertainty is difficult for many companies. I ask Congress to make Indemnification permanent, and also extend the Learning Period to a full eight years of R&D and operational flights to provide regulatory certainty to firms developing passenger carrying vehicles.”
Mojave Air and Space Port General Manager and CEO Stu Witt will testify along with space tourist and Inspiration Mars Chairman Dennis Tito at a House Space Subcommittee hearing concerning commercial space on Wednesday. Patricia Cooper, president of the Satellite Industry Association, will join Witt and Tito on the hearing’s second panel. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), whose district includes the Mojave spaceport, will be on the first panel. The hearing […]
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA officials Wednesday released a synopsis requesting information from U.S. private enterprises interested in pursuing unfunded partnerships. The aim is to advance the development of commercial space products and services.The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities synopsis describes a potential opportunity for existing and new companies and non-profit organizations to access NASA’s spaceflight expertise for mutually beneficial space exploration goals.
