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Author
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Topic: FAA Issues License for Historic Sub-Orbital Manned Rocket Launch
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42986
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-07-2004 07:04 PM
   
WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced it has issued the world’s first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight. The license was issued April 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by aviation record-holder Burt Rutan, for a sequence of sub-orbital flights spanning a one-year period. The FAA sub-orbital space flight license is required for U.S. contenders in the X-Prize competition, a high-stakes international race ultimately to launch a manned, reusable private vehicle into space and return it safely to Earth. The X-Prize foundation will award $10 million to the first company or organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), return them safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks. Twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries have already registered for the X-Prize contest, modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize for which Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris in 1927. In its 20 years of existence, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has licensed more than 150 commercial launches of unmanned expendable launch vehicles. This license is the first to authorize manned flight on a sub-orbital trajectory. While the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety, applicants must undergo an extensive pre-application process, demonstrate adequate financial responsibility to cover any potential losses, and meet strict environmental requirements. |
music_space
Member Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 04-08-2004 10:51 AM
Is such a license public? If yes, I'd really like to read it. For instance, what are the environmental requirements? I don't remember this ever been discussed here, but I don't think that burning aluminum powder is within the EPA.------------------
François Guay
Collector of litterature, notebooks, equipment and memories! |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42986
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-08-2004 11:05 AM
I would suspect that the license, if public, would be available through a FOIA request. I doubt (but could be wrong) that it would be posted to their website as it may include proprietary information. To your specific question, I did find the following on the FAA/AST website: quote:
Environmental Review: The environmental evaluation ensures that proposed launch activities pose no unacceptable danger to the natural environment. FAA/AST is required to consider the environmental effects of commercial space launches authorized under a license because the issuance of a license is considered to be a major federal action under the National Environment Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. (NEPA). An applicant must provide information sufficient to enable the FAA/AST to comply with the requirements of NEPA, the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of NEPA, 40 CFR Parts 1500-1508, and the FAA's Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts, FAA Order 1050.1D. For more information, click here.
I also found the following website:
http://ast.faa.gov/lrra/envir_prog.htm |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 04-08-2004 11:43 AM
I also see the Canadian team mwith pilot Dick Feeney and the Wildfire craft strung beneath helium ballon under the 'da Vinci' name is about to announce a 'launch date' as well soon.Where should I put my money ? Rutan I think to win the X-prize - since isn't the da Vinci wildfire capable of only one person ?
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