As Space News reported , NASA is finalizing its human rating certification for SpaceX’s crewed Dragon spacecraft. Launch operators and potential crew or space flight participants need to know that NASA’s certification is not the same as FAA certification of aircraft. The two certifications come under different laws, follow different processes, and apply different standards.
Why does this matter? One reason it matters–from a fussy legal perspective–is that in the future, when an FAA licensed launch operator such as SpaceX takes people who are not government astronauts on a launch, sections 460.45(b) and 460.9 of the FAA’s regulations require licensed operators to tell their crew or space flight participants that the U.S. government has not certified the vehicle as safe for carrying them.
This could cause confusion. The space flight participant might remember reading about an operator’s NASA certification in Space News. Why is the launch operator now telling him the government hasn’t certified the vehicle as safe? That’s because although both the FAA and NASA use the term “certification” they mean different things by it. The FAA has a long history of certificating aircraft. The FAA holds commercial aircraft, for example, to high levels of reliability under its certification standards. NASA uses different measures. Thus, when an FAA-licensed launch or reentry operator tells a crew member or space flight participant that the government hasn’t certified the vehicle as safe, the regulations warn the occupant that the vehicle hasn’t achieved the levels of safety more typical of aircraft.
When Congress required the FAA to impose this requirement in 2004, it identified only two types of occupants of FAA-licensed launches and reentries: crew and space flight participants. In 2015, Congress took note of plans for NASA to hire operators launching under FAA license, and identified a new class of occupants, namely, government astronauts. Many disclosure and financial responsibility requirements that apply to space flight participants and crew, including the one discussed above, do not apply to government astronauts.
Accordingly, an FAA-licensed launch operator need not tell any government astronauts on board that the government hasn’t certified the vehicle as safe.
Graphic: M.C. Escher