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Licensing

All commercial launches (or re-entries or landings) conducted by a U.S. company are regulated by the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) of 1984 and its 1988 and 1998 amendments. Under the CSLA, each launch (or re-entry) must have a license. This is true even when launching offshore, as is the case with Kistler Aerospace, which is headquartered in Seattle but launches in Australia, or Sea Launch, a venture composed of Boeing, a Russian company, and a Norwegian company that launches from a ship. These regulations are an outcome of the United Nations's 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which places responsibility for any liabilities that might result from a space launch and/or reentry (for instance, if a person or building is hit by a spent rocket stage) on the launching state.

To assure "the public health and safety, safety of property, and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States," Congress enacted the CSLA and established FAA/AST. The Office of the Associate Administrator Commercial Space Transportation (AST), is part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Its web site, ast.faa.gov, lists all relevant rules, laws, regulations, and documents necessary to obtain a launch license.

FAA/AST is organized as the Office of the Associate Administrator (the headquarters office of AST); the Space Systems Development Division (SSDD); and the Licensing and Safety Division (LASD). SSDD develops regulations and policy and provides engineering support and forecasting; LASD is the organization that actually evaluates applications and issues licenses. Helping advise FAA/AST is an industry group, the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), which FAA/AST established and sponsors. COMSTAC meets quarterly. FAA/AST also licenses spaceport operators (and their spaceports), such as at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

FAA/AST officials encourage those seeking a launch license to meet with the organization in "pre-licensing consultations" before submitting an actual license application. FAA/AST conducts a policy review, a payload review, a safety evaluation, an environmental review, and a financial responsibility determination based on the data in the license application. It contacts the applicant if it needs more data or if it requires the applicant to change something to qualify for the license.

Once the official application arrives, FAA/AST has 180 days to issue a license. Since 1984 officials have issued the license in almost every case. There have been only two or three exceptions, and in these cases FAA/AST initially rejected the application because of technical lapses. Once applicants made corrections, the FAA/AST granted the license and the rocket flew. After FAA/AST issues a license, it monitors the licensee through launch to assure compliance with regulations and requirements.