Says Federal Range Safety Analyses Now Satisfy Requirements

The FAA announced on December 13 that it will now accept the safety analyses filed by Federal ranges in California, Florida, and Virginia as satisfying the requirements of Part 450 for space mission launch and reentry licenses. This action removes a level of paperwork and review to bring more efficiency and clarification to the process.

The new process can be used immediately by applicants for Part 450 licenses and an Advisory Circular will be issued in the near future to provide additional information. The FAA said it is expanding the list of safety-related services performed by each Federal range that will fulfill the Part 450 rule.

Entities in the commercial space sector often cite the safety analyses as a bottleneck in the license application process because they must contract with the ranges to perform the analysis, which then need to be confirmed as acceptable by the FAA.

The revision of the safety analysis review simplifies the process, reduces the amount of paperwork applicants must submit, and improves the overall efficiency of the FAA technical review.

Kelvin B. Coleman, the FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation said, “This is a force multiplier in the production of quality flight safety analyses the FAA can readily accept when evaluating Part 450 launch and reentry license applications. It also lessens the paperwork burden on the applicant and helps to speed the FAA review process.”

FMI:  www.faa.gov/