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XCOR Launch Application Complete
Kulic writes "SpaceDaily.com is reporting that XCOR, a competitor for the X-Prize has had their launch application deemed 'sufficiently complete' by the Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation. This significant regulatory milestone means that AST has committed itself either to issue a launch license to XCOR within 180 days or notify Congress that it failed to do so."
Link to their website. :) More Q&A about XCOR suborbital stuff on our site: here.
Well....The division of the FAA in charge of licensing private space launches is AST, or Associate Administrator of Space Transportation. AST was origintally an independent government agency created by the 1984 commercial space act. It's job was to make the process of obtaining a launch license far easier by making it the one stop shop for all licensing needs. Previously you had to deal with many seperate government agencies to obtain all the nessesary permits for a launch. The 1984 Commercial Space Act says that OST (Office of Space Transportation) had the exclusive authority to issue or deny launch licenses and that they be a clearing house for all other agencies.
:)..the job of the agency is only to protect the uninvolved public. In addition to protecting the American public, the United States has signed an international treaty which makes it partly responsible for the 'maximum probable loss'worldwide in the event of a disaster that kills people on the ground. This is mostly referring to large vertical launches, i.e. Boeing satellite launches out of Vandenberg, but can also apply to smaller vehicles as well.
During the Clinton administration, OST was folded into the FAA as a department, where it became AST.
Recently, some confusion arose as to whether these new suborbital vehicles, which go to space but are shaped like airplanes and take off and land like airplanes, would be the jurisdiction of AST (the space folks) or AVR (the regular airplane folks at the FAA). A bill has just been introduced in the Senate to clarify the legislation set out in 1984 to include suborbital vehicles. This is discussed in our previous press release here: http://www.xcor.com/CST-2003.html
FAA does not have authority over 'all known space' (hi Larry
Healthy regulation that promotes the industry is a GoodThing(tm) and part of AST/OST's mandate is to promote the industry. We are all helping to write the new regulations and make them safe and sane for both industry and the uninvolved public. Most people don't remember but the FAA got started when the maturing airline industry begged to be regulated so that the fly by night folks wouldn't taint the safety record of the reliable majority and thus scare off travellers. The only issue with the airline regulations is that they are very technology specific, and these new space planes use cutting edge composites and completely new engines that the FAA's airplane division is not equipped to handle, but the AST department is. Talk to your Senate leaders and endorse the HR 3245 bill, which clarifies AST's jurisdiction over these vehicles. ( http://www.xcor.com/HR-3245.html )
Well you're welcome...I was just heading out the door when I hit reload one last time, and by golly there's the press release from yesterday. So I decided to stick around and blab. :) Meaningful info is indeed a good thing, brings down the s/n ratio. Education is part of our mission, which is why we started things like the Aerospace reference library and why we take our 15 lb-thrust N2O-Ethane 'teacart' engine to conventions and fire it for people.