New FAA requirements for launch licenses – Kosmonautix.cz

In June 2023, the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launched SpaceX the shared mission Transporter – 8. As part of this mission, the Varda Space company’s equipment was also on board, which was integrated together with Rocket Lab’s Photon space tractor. For Varda Space, this marked the first mission aimed at manufacturing pharmaceutical products in a microgravity environment. The return of the mission, designated as W-1, was originally planned for the month of September of that year. In the end, the entire mission was unexpectedly prolonged, and the reentry case, including the results of the microgravity drug production, landed in the Utah desert on February 21, 2024. However, today’s article is not about the W-1 mission, but about the impact that this mission brought to the legislative environment of spaceflight within the US.

Flight without return license

In a notice published in the Federal Register on April 17, the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Division announced that it will no longer approve the launch of spacecraft intended to return to Earth unless those missions are also authorized to return to Earth. The Authority said it will review compliance with this process as part of the standard payload review process in the future. The FAA notice said the decision was related to safety concerns.

“Unlike a typical payload intended for operation in space, the reentry body has primary components that are designed to survive reentry essentially intact, and therefore are almost guaranteed to impact the ground as a result of either a controlled reentry or an uncontrolled reentry. An uncontrolled reentry, such as would occur if a controlled reentry was not permitted, would likely result in risks greater than those accepted for FAA-licensed reentry operations.”

The announcement comes after Varda Space Industries launched its first W-1 mission in June 2023, but without permission to re-enter. After months of effort and an earlier denied request for a return permit, Varda was only licensed in February 2024. The return case then landed safely at a test and training range in Utah a week after receiving the license. On April 10, on the sidelines of the 39th Space Symposium, Kelvin Coleman, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said policy changes were planned in light of the Varda Space experience.

“We have allowed Varda Space to launch on a SpaceX rocket without re-entry clearance. We learned from that.’

The non-return launch license was issued to the company based on a tight schedule for the launch of the mission. The FAA thus authorized a takeoff without a license to return. The FAA is no longer willing to take this risk and future flights must have both licenses. The reason for this decision is also the evaluation of the safety of the return of the bodies so that there is no general danger to the population or property. Commercial returns of spacecraft and other bodies remain rare. The FAA currently lists only two active re-entry licenses, one for Varda Space and the other for SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. However, the FAA expects demand for these licenses to grow as more companies need their equipment returned.

One example of the growing interest is the startup Inversion, which announced on April 17 that it will launch its device on SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission. This technology demonstration device, called Ray, will conduct tests in orbit before being ordered to perform a controlled return. Inversion has not disclosed the status of its licensing efforts for this mission.

Translated from:
spacenews.com

Sources of information:
spacenews.com

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