Commercial Space Transportation Licensing Regulations(5)

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The Environmental Protection Agency commented on the FAA’s environmental procedures. The launch operators who filed comments included Boeing Commercial Space Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, and Orbital Sciences Corporation. Reusable launch vehicle operators’ views were represented by Kistler Aerospace Corporation, Rotary Rocket Company, and Space Access. Hughes Electronics, Spaceport Florida Authority, and the National Transportation Safety Board also filed comments. The comments focused on several major issues, with the proposed definition of launch eliciting the most attention. Foreign ownership of a license applicant also proved a topic of concern, as did issues surrounding the FAA’s proposed risk threshold and various safety requirements. In light of the great variety of topics encompassed by this rulemaking, rather than devoting a single section to all of the comments, the FAA addresses the comments by subject matter throughout the preamble and section by section analysis in the relevant context.
On October 28, 1998, the Commercial Space Act of 1998 was signed into law. Among other things, it revised the definition of launch to include activities "involved in the preparation of a launch vehicle or payload for launch, when those activities take place at a launch site in the United States." P.L. 105-303 (1998), 49 U.S.C. 70102(3). The change affects this rulemaking’s definition of launch by both confirming the more narrow application proposed in the NPRM and expanding the scope of launch to encompass launch vehicle preparatory activities occurring at any launch site in the United States, even when those activities take place at a launch site from which flight of the launch vehicle does not take place.

Launch License
The amendments to the FAA’s launch licensing regulations address the definition of "launch," licensing requirements, including payload determinations and policy reviews, and information required from an applicant proposing to launch a vehicle employing established technology and procedures from a federal launch range. The FAA here changes its interpretation of the definition of "launch" and thus changes the scope of a launch license. Additionally, in contrast to what was originally proposed in the NPRM, which was to define with particularity the beginning of launch for purposes of those taking place from a federal launch range, the FAA will apply its proposed definition of launch to a launch taking place at any launch site located in the United States, whether that launch site is a federal launch range or not. Through this rulemaking the FAA is formalizing its practice of issuing two different types of launch licenses, a launch operator license pursuant to which a licensee may conduct any launches that fall within the broad parameters described in its license, and a launch-specific license, which allows a licensee to conduct only those launches enumerated in the license.
Scope of Launch License and Definition of "Launch"
The Act requires a launch operator to obtain a license for the launch of a launch vehicle. Accordingly, the definition of "launch" controls the scope of a launch license. Greater certainty regarding this definition will allow a licensee to plan better regarding a number of issues. Because the FAA's financial responsibility requirements and eligibility for payment by the United States of excess claims for liability for damages to third parties are coextensive with a licensed launch, knowledge of the scope of a launch license allows a licensee to manage its risks appropriately and to make its own provisions for financial responsibility or insurance coverage in addition to that required under the statute. Through this rulemaking, the FAA defines launch to begin with the arrival of a launch vehicle at a federal launch range or other U.S. launch site. Launch ends, for purposes of ground operations, when the launch vehicle leaves the ground, and, for purposes of flight, after the licensee’s last exercise of control over the vehicle. The NPRM had proposed to include within the new definition "[t]he term launch includes the flight of a launch vehicle, and those hazardous pre-flight activities that are closely proximate in time to flight and are unique to space flight." That sentence is now omitted as superfluous in light of the application of the launch license period to all U.S. launch sites, regardless of whether the launch site is located on a federal launch range or not. The concepts guided the creation of the definition for this rulemaking, and will still guide the FAA in defining the beginning of launch outside the United States.
　
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