FAA to Establish Launch Licensing Regulations Refinement Committee

The Federal Aviation Administration will establish a committee to get industry input on ways to improve a new launch licensing process, two years before all launch providers must switch to the new regulations in 2026.

In a speech at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference on Feb. 21, Kelvin Coleman, FAA Associate Administrator for AST, said the agency would establish an aerospace rulemaking committee, or SpARC, to find ways to streamline launch and reentry licensing regulations.

The regulations, Part 450, were intended to streamline the licensing process and were developed relatively quickly in response to a provision in Space Policy Directive 2 in 2018. Industry has argued that the implementation of the regulations has led to licensing delays, with only a handful of companies receiving Part 450 licenses to date.

The Part 450 SpARC would provide industry with a way to discuss improvements to the regulations, particularly in areas like treatment of reentry vehicles and those launch vehicles still in a flight test program.

The goal is to get the SpARC established no later than the fall, but did not state how long he expected the committee to meet before providing recommendations to the FAA regarding potential changes to the regulations.