Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

Two centrally important legal components of the licensing program administered by theFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) are financial responsibility and risk allocationrequirements. Financial responsibility requirements are generally satisfied through insuranceobtained by the launch operator or licensee.More on this later. But first, who is required to obtain a launch or launch site license?FAA has legislative authority to license any person conducting commercial launchactivities (including the operation of a launch site) within the United States. It also haslegislative authority in the case of a United States citizen, or an entity operating under UnitedStates jurisdiction, conducting a launch or operating a launch site outside of the United States.FAA also licenses foreign entities in which a United States citizen has a controllinginterest if that entity wishes to conduct launch operations in an area that is both outside theUnited States and outside of the territory of any foreign nation. If the United States has anagreement to allow another nation to regulate this area, that nation gains jurisdiction. If thereis an agreement that United States jurisdiction applies to a foreign location, then the FAAdoes have responsibility for licensing that launch or launch site.FAA does not review amateur rocket activities (defined as launch activities conductedat private sites involving rockets with a total impulse of 200,000 pound-seconds or less, anoperating time of less than 15 seconds, and a ballistic coefficient less than 12 psi). Also, ASTdoes not review space activities conducted by or on behalf of the United States government.The United States issues two general types of launch licenses: a launch-specific licenseand a launch operator license. A launch-specific license authorizes a licensee to conduct oneor more launches, having the same launch parameters, of one type of launch vehicle from onelaunch site. The license identifies, by name or mission, each launch authorized under thelicense. A licensee’s authorization to launch terminates on completion of all launchesauthorized by the license or the expiration date stated in the license, whichever occurs first. Alaunch operator license authorizes a licensee to conduct launches from one launch site, withina range of launch parameters, of launch vehicles from the same family of vehiclestransporting specified classes of payloads. A launch operator license remains in effect for fiveyears from the date of issuance. The first licensed commercial launch was conducted in 1989,and 146 licensed launches have been conducted as of this year.In brief, the process of licensing consists of seven elements:1. Pre-application Consultations: Prior to submitting a license application, the applicantand the FAA engage in a pre-application consultation process, familiarizing the FAAwith the applicant’s proposal and the applicant with the licensing process.2. Policy Review and Approval: Once an application has been received, the FAAconducts its own review of the proposed mission to determine whether it presents anyissues affecting U.S. national security or foreign policy interests or internationalobligations.3. Safety Review and Approval: The purpose of the safety review is to determinewhether an applicant can safely conduct the launch of the proposed launch vehicle(s)and any payload. A licensee is responsible for public safety and must demonstrate thatits commercial launch operations will pose no unacceptable threat to the public. To dothis, applicants typically perform quantitative analyses of the reliability and functions ofcritical safety systems, the hazards associated with the hardware, and the risk thosehazards pose to public property and individuals near the launch site and along the flightpath, to satellites and other on-orbit spacecraft. Applicants also detail the organizationalattributes of the applicant, such as launch safety policie s and procedures,237