Proposed Updated FAA Regulations Threaten Financial Burden on SpaceX, Private Space Industry

The Federal Aviation Administration requested this week the renewal and updates to a regulation that could impose more insurance requirements on private space launch companies.  

Permit or license applicants are required to submit certain information to the FAA for determining maximum probable loss. The FAA currently requires information such as flight sequence, mission description, staging events, launch vehicle descriptions, payload, and more.  

The renewal and expansion of the Financial Responsibility for Licensed Launch Activities regulation could increase the number of factors that determine maximum probable loss, which determines the financial responsibility of a licensee.  

Additions to the regulation could significantly raise the costs of space launches for commercial licensees, and appear to be targeting SpaceX, the largest commercial space launch provider in the United States.  

Should additions be made to the collection of information the FAA requires of commercial space launch licensees, SpaceX and other private space launch companies could be forced to spend more on insurance premiums, devote more administrative resources to compiling detailed risk assessments, set aside greater financial reserves, and be made more vulnerable to the financial impact of a failure.  

CPAC opposes the expansion of this regulation for its detrimental impact on the commercial space launch industry. Expansion of requirements for MPL would increase the financial burden and thereby decrease competition and limit free market operations in the space launch industry.  

Given the invaluable services SpaceX has recently provided the country through its Starlink network and bringing astronauts safely home, increasing the financial burden unnecessarily on SpaceX and the entire private space industry would be unwise and a detriment to the country on the whole.  

CPAC’s Center for Regulatory Freedom recommends that the FAA not add to these regulations and will be submitting comments in opposition to the increase in regulations on space launch services.