Congressmen push FAA to accelerate licensing process

WASHINGTON — As the Federal Aviation Administration kicks off a committee to study ways to refine launch and reentry regulations, two members of Congress are asking the agency to move even faster to reform those rules.

In a Dec. 6 letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chair of the House Transportation Committee, and Rob Wittman (R-Va.) called for the FAA to pursue “all actions short of rulemaking” to expedite the licensing process under regulations known as Part 450.

Those regulations have been a source of frustration for many companies in the industry, who have complained about the difficulty in getting licenses under those regulations, which went into effect in 2021. While many companies operate under older regulations, they must shift to Part 450 by March 2026.

In their letter, Graves and Wittman focused on a process known as pre-application consultation, where companies meet with the FAA to discuss their launch or reentry vehicle prior to submitting a formal license application. The submission of a completed license starts a 180-day clock for the FAA to either issue a license or reject the application.

“However, this timeframe does not include the months, and oftentimes years, of pre–application review that create extensive delays for companies seeking a launch and reentry license,” the congressmen wrote. “These delays have a direct impact on the United States’ standing in space exploration and our strategic competition with a growing number of adversarial nations seeking to disrupt our space capabilities and support their own.”

The letter came a day after the FAA announced it held the first meeting of a space-related aerospace rulemaking committee, or SpARC, that will look at ways to reform Part 450. The FAA said in November it had established the SpARC after announcing early this year its intent to charter a committee to find ways to improve the regulations.

“The FAA is seeking to foster more clarity, flexibility, efficiency and innovation while ensuring timely licensing determinations without compromising public safety,” the agency stated. It will focus on nine topics, including flight safety analyses, system safety and means of compliance, and plans to release recommendations by late summer of 2025.

Graves and Wittman said in their letter that they welcomed the establishment of the SpARC but called on the FAA to do more. “We, however, urge the FAA to act now and ensure that all actions short of rulemaking that can help mitigate the deficiencies of the part 450 regulation are taken in advance of any necessary regulatory changes to ensure that the commercial space industry does not have to wait years for relief.”

That sentiment is shared by the Commercial Space Federation (CSF), an industry group that represents many companies seeking Part 450 licenses. “That’s a great step in the right direction. The SpARCs are great for long-term fixes,” said Dave Cavossa, president of CSF, in a recent interview. “But there’s stuff that the FAA can do right now within its own power, and I think with some guidance from Congress and the new administration, there’s a lot of things the FAA can do themselves in the next 120 days to make launch licensing flow more smoothly.”

The SpARC includes 24 members, which the FAA said includes “current and prospective” licensees with experience with Part 450. The FAA did not disclose the names of specific individuals but listed companies that include major launch operators like Blue Origin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Virgin Galactic.

Also on the list is Varda Space Industries, which struggled to get a Part 450 reentry license for its first mission. The company launched that mission without a reentry license, and the lengthy process to get a license extended its mission by several months. The FAA now requires companies that need a reentry license to obtain it before launch.

During a panel discussion at the SpaceNews Icon Awards Dec. 6, Eric Lasker, chief revenue officer of Varda, called for increasing the staffing of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to handle the higher volume of license applications. “There’s ways to streamline it even further,” he said, such as getting a license for multiple missions.

One challenge the company faces outside of the Part 450 process is a lack of reentry locations in the United States. The company landed its first mission at the Utah Test and Training Range, but that was a complicated effort. The company will use a range in Australia for its second mission.

“Some kind of reentry range that’s unique from launch ranges,” he said, “would probably be the biggest enabler for a company like ours.”