The Center for Growth and Opportunity published my paper, Should Congress Extend the Moratorium on Regulating Human Spaceflight. From the Executive Summary:
Since 2004, a congressional moratorium has prevented the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from regulating the safety of passengers on board commercial space flights. This moratorium is scheduled to expire October 1, 2023.
The purpose of the moratorium has been to grant the human spaceflight industry a “learning period” similar to the one the aviation industry had in the early 1900s. Aviation saw several decades of experimentation and flight before the FAA began regulating it. The commercial space sector wanted the same before it would be required to contend with regulatory drag.
Lately many commercial spaceflight companies have launched passengers into orbit. Does this mean it’s time to let the moratorium expire so the FAA can begin regulating the safety of those passengers?
Despite the moratorium, FAA regulations do protect people on board space flights. Specifically, they protect crew members because they are a part of a vehicle’s flight-safety system, which is what protects the public from hazards posed by rockets.
This protection of the flight crew also protects other persons on board. For example, the requirement for life-sustaining conditions in a vehicle’s inhabited areas requires that an operator account for all persons on board. Otherwise the extra passengers would deplete the life-sustaining atmosphere intended for the crew. In other words, the FAA currently has in place a number of measures that effectively protect all vehicle occupants.
In a 2017 report for Congress, the FAA concluded that the spaceflight industry is not ready for more regulation. Three indicators of industry readiness for regulation outlined by the FAA include: the purpose of space travel, the size and complexity of the industry, and the industry’s safety record. Thus, safety regulations may be appropriate when space travel becomes a regular means of transportation—if there is evidence of unsafe operations, if the industry has trouble attracting new customers, or if insurance companies are unwilling to insure spaceflight participants.
Even counting flight crew and government astronauts, the industry is not seeing thousands of persons heading to space for work yet, and we have not come close to the 10,000 launches predicted back in 2004.
The original projections for commercial human spaceflight were ambitious. They have yet to be met. Until they are, Congress should extend the moratorium.
The paper itself is three pages with footnotes. Check it out!