Experimental Permits for Reusable Suborbital Rockets Guidelines

1. Federal Aviation Administration Experimental Permits for Reusable Suborbital Rockets Guidelines Randy Repcheck May 25, 2005

2. Outline • The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 • AST’s Approach to Developing the Guidelines • Experimental Permit Basics • How to Obtain an Experimental Permit • Post-Permit Operations

3. The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 • On December 23, 2004, President Bush signed into law the CSLAA, which: • Promotes development of emerging human space flight industry, and • Makes FAA responsible for regulating private human space flight. • Among other things, the CSLAA establishes an experimental permit regime for reusable suborbital rockets flown for: • Research and development. • Showing compliance with requirements for a license. • Crew training prior to obtaining a license.

4. The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (cont.) • Experimental permit differs from a license as follows: • 120 day determination. • No comp or hire. • No indemnification. • Not transferable. • Should authorize an unlimited number of launches and reentries. • Legislative history indicates that an experimental permit • Should be easier to obtain than a license, and • To the extent practical, should be modeled after an Experimental Airworthiness Certificate.

5. The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (cont.) • Within 12 months after the date of enactment of the CSLAA, the Secretary shall publish proposed regulations. • Within 18 months after the date of enactment of the CSLAA, the Secretary shall issue final regulations. • As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of the CSLAA, the Secretary is to issue guidelines or advisory circulars to guide the implementation of the CSLAA until regulations are issued.

6. AST’s Approach to Developing the Guidelines • Current AST licensing uses a three-prong public safety strategy for licensing: • System safety process. • An operator should use a logical, disciplined approach to identifying hazards and mitigating and eliminating risks. • Quantitative risk analysis. • Analyses that quantify the residual risk to the public through a calculation of individual and collective risk. • Risks limited to set criteria. • Operating requirements. • AST streamlined each prong recognizing the unique needs of experimental flight test.

7. Experimental Permit Basics • Scope: • Hazardous pre-flight operations, • Flight, and • Post-flight safing. • One permit can authorize multiple vehicles of a particular design. • The FAA will identify the type of design changes that may be made without invalidating the permit. • Duration - one year. • Renewable.

8. How to Obtain an Experimental Permit • To obtain an experimental permit, an applicant should provide the following: • Program description. • Flight test plan. • Operational safety documentation. • Should also provide information for FAA to comply with NEPA. • If flight crew or space flight participant will be on board, should show compliance with crew and space flight participant guidelines. • Should make vehicle available for inspection prior to permit issuance.

9. Program Description • Describe the purpose for which the reusable suborbital rocket is to be used. • Provide dimensioned three-view drawings or photographs. • Provide gross lift-off weight and thrust profile. • Provide a general description of all systems. • Describe each payload or payload class planned to be flown. • Describe any foreign ownership.

10. Flight Test PlanFlight Tests • An experimental permit applicant should describe the flight test program, including: • Estimated number of flights. • Key flight safety events (events that have an increased likelihood of causing failure compared to other portions of flight, such as ignition, staging, envelope expansion, and reentry). • Maximum altitude.

11. Flight Test PlanOperating Area • An applicant should identify and describe one or more operating areas where it plans to perform its flights. • An operating area is acceptable to the FAA if: • No densely populated areas are present in or adjacent to the operating area. • The operating area contains the planned trajectories, accounting for expected dispersions. • The operating area contains enough sparsely populated or unpopulated area to perform key flight-safety events. • The operating area does not contain significant automobile, railway, waterborne vessel traffic, or large concentrations of the public.

12. Flight Test PlanOperating Area (cont’d) • Operating areas are subject to FAA approval. • FAA may prohibit certain areas from being within an operating area, or classify certain areas as exclusion areas (areas where the vehicle cannot fly), if necessary.

13. Operational Safety DocumentationHazard Analysis • An applicant should perform an analysis that identifies and characterizes the hazards and assesses the risks to the public, as follows: • Identify and describe hazards. • Determine the qualitative risk (severity and likelihood) and risk acceptability for each hazard using FAA-defined criteria. • Identify and describe risk elimination and mitigation measures for each hazard. • Provide validation and verification evidence for risk elimination and mitigation measures.

14. Operational Safety DocumentationOperating Area Containment • An applicant should identify methods or systems used to contain its vehicle’s Instantaneous Impact Point (IIP) within the operating area and outside any exclusion area. • This description should include: • Proof of physical limitations on the ability of the vehicle to leave the operating area, or • Abort procedures and safety measures resulting from a system safety process, for example: • Dedicated flight safety system. • Real time IIP display with abort criteria.

15. Operational Safety DocumentationKey Flight-Safety Events • An applicant should identify methods or systems used to conduct key flight-safety events over sparsely populated areas. • Key flight safety events include: • Ignition of the primary rocket engines. • Any staging event. • Any envelope expansion portion of flight. • Need verification evidence such as: • Test data, • Demonstration data, • Analysis approach and results, and/or • Inspection results.

16. Operational Safety DocumentationAgreements • A permittee should complete the following agreements, if applicable: • FAA Air Traffic Control – Operating area, Notices to Airmen, airspace closure, and other measures. • U.S. Coast Guard – Notices to Mariners and other measures. • Launch site, federal or commercial. • Any other parties that are necessary to support a permitted flight.

17. Post-Permit Operations • Once a permit is issued, a permittee should follow a number of public safety measures: • Pre-flight and Post-flight Operations • Hazard Analysis • Operating Area Containment • Key Flight-Safety Events Limitations • Landing and Impact Locations • Conjunction on Launch Assessment • Flight Rules • Tracking and Communications • Anomaly Reporting • Mishap Reporting, Responding, Investigation • Crew Rest

18. Post-Permit OperationsPre-flight and Post-flight Operations • A permittee should establish a safety clear zone that will contain the adverse effects of each operation involving a hazard. • A permittee should verify that the public is outside of a safety clear zone before and during a hazardous operation.

19. Post-Permit OperationsHazard Analysis • A permittee should assure conformance with the risk elimination and mitigation measures derived from its hazard analysis. • A permittee should ensure the continued validity of its hazard analysis, including updating the hazards and risks as experience is gained.

20. Post-Permit OperationsOperating Area Containment • A permittee should stay within the operating area and outside any exclusion areas.

21. Post-Permit OperationsKey Flight-Safety Events Limitations • A permittee should conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket’s instantaneous impact point, accounting for expected dispersions, is over a sparsely populated or unpopulated area. • A permittee should conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area.

22. Post-Permit OperationsLanding and Impact Locations • A permittee should use a location for nominal landing, any contingency abort landing, or any reusable suborbital rocket component impact or landing that: • Can be reached by the reusable suborbital rocket or component, • Is of sufficient size to contain impacts, including debris dispersion upon impact, and • At the time of landing or impact, does not contain any members of the public.

23. Post-Permit OperationsCollision Avoidance Analysis • For a permitted flight reaching an altitude greater than 150 kilometers, a permittee should obtain a collision avoidance analysis from United States Strategic Command. • The collision avoidance analysis may establish periods of time during which a permittee should not initiate flight, in order to ensure that a permitted vehicle or any stages do not pass close to a habitable orbital object.

24. Post-Permit OperationsTracking and Communications • A permittee should: • Enable Air Traffic Control (ATC) to know the real-time position and velocity while the rocket is operating in the National Airspace System. • Provide position and velocity data for post-flight use. • Be in communication with ATC during all phases of flight. • Record communications affecting the safety of the flight.

25. Post-Permit OperationsFlight Rules • A permittee should implement flight rules prior to initiating flight and during nominal and non-nominal flight to: • Contain IIP within the operating area and outside exclusion areas. • Contain key flight-safety events over sparsely populated areas. • Comply with any agreement. • Comply with any COLA closures. • Comply with tracking and communications needs. • Other measures derived from its hazard analysis.

26. Post-Permit OperationsFlight Rules (cont.) • A permittee should abort the flight if the vehicle is in a state such that the continued operation of the vehicle would endanger the public. • A permittee should not operate a vehicle in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger members of the public. • FAA may incorporate portions of part 91 for airplane-like portions of flight.

27. Post-Permit OperationsAnomaly Reporting • A permittee should record anomalies and implement corrective actions for those anomalies. • A permittee should report to the FAA any anomaly of systems necessary for IIP containment, systems for preventing key flight-safety events over populated areas, or those systems designed to mitigate risk as defined in the hazard analysis process.

28. Post-Permit OperationsMishap Reporting, Responding, Investigating • A permittee should report, respond to, and investigate mishaps. • Notify FAA immediately if accident or incident, and submit a preliminary report within 5 days of the event. • Contain and minimize consequences, preserve evidence, and cooperate with FAA and NTSB investigators. • Investigate the cause and report results to FAA.

29. Post-Permit OperationsCrew Rest • A permittee should ensure that vehicle safety operations personnel adhere to the following work and rest standards: • A maximum 12-hour work shift with at least 8 hours of rest after 12 hours of work during permitted activities. • A maximum of 60 hours worked in the 7 days preceding initiation of a permitted activity. • A maximum of 14 consecutive work days. • A minimum 48-hour rest period after 5 consecutive days of 12-hour shifts.

30. Questions?