Spaceport Categorization RTF ARC Recommendations Aviation Final Report Rulemaking Committee (ARC) November 20, 2015 ARC Recommendations Final Report March 29, 2019 Page intentionally left blank Table of Contents 1. BACKGROUND .........................................................................................................................................................................1 2. OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES OF THE ARC ................................................................................1 3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................................................................................................2 4. COMMON LANGUAGE ..........................................................................................................................................................3 A. Definitions ................................................................................................................................................................................3 B. Table of Applicability of Terms ......................................................................................................................................... 36 5. ARC RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 38 A. The Licensing Process ......................................................................................................................................................... 38 1) The Aviation Community’s Issues and Concerns in the Licensing Process .......................................................... 38 2) The Commercial Space Community’s Issues and Concerns in the Licensing Process ........................................ 39 B. Spaceport Data Disclosure .................................................................................................................................................. 40 6. APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................................................ 43 i 1. BACKGROUND The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA or the Agency) chartered the Spaceport Categorization Aviation Rulemaking Committee (SC-ARC or ARC) to assist the FAA in providing the appropriate spaceport categorization framework to develop FAA policy and future regulations, while considering the impacts to established aviation operations. As the commercial space transportation industry has grown in vehicle technology, operational capability, and market penetration, enthusiasm of state, regional, and private entities to invest in commercial spaceports has also increased rapidly. The FAA has expressed a desire to encourage a broad, resilient infrastructure supporting a multitude of companies and missions, and to identify potential spaceport integration issues and provide early regulatory clarity to municipalities and enterprises developing their business places. Co-location at airports, impacts to air traffic, and general public safety considerations are all emergent issues as the commercial space transportation industry becomes more widespread and normalized. The FAA believes a spaceport categorization framework provides a primary means to enhance clarity and communication for space and aviation stakeholders and the FAA. The FAA chartered the SC-ARC to assist the FAA in defining a working set of spaceport categories that includes strong consideration of the needs for airspace and airport integration. 2. OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES OF THE ARC ARC Membership The ARC was composed of members representing airports, spaceports, launch operators, consulting firms and numerous industry member organizations. A complete list of ARC members is included in Appendix A to this report. ARC Objectives The SC-ARC was tasked with assisting the FAA in reviewing category criteria defining ranges of launch and reentry vehicle types and the ease with which they could be accommodated at spaceport locations. Overall, the goal of the SC-ARC was to provide a forum for the United States aviation and space communities to review and discuss a spaceport categorization scheme to be used as a primary communication tool by the FAA and the stakeholder community. The FAA charged the SC-ARC with the following specific task: Review the FAA’s draft spaceport categorization scheme and provide specific consensus comments and recommendations on its overall framework as well as each of its specific elements to assist the FAA in developing clear and useful spaceport categories. 1 ARC Working Groups The members of the SC-ARC were organized into three working groups: • Task Group One – Concerns/Gaps Identified in Current Site Licensing Process • Task Group Two – Common Language/Terminology • Task Group Three – Spaceport Categorization ARC Meetings The initial meeting with the FAA and industry took place in Washington, DC on February 28, 2018. FAA representatives presented industry members with a draft spaceport categorization scheme. Following the initial meeting, the SC-ARC held the meetings and teleconferences on the following dates to discuss the FAA’s effort: March 19, 2018 Teleconference April 16, 2018 Teleconference June 25, 2018 Teleconference July 20, 2018 In-person at Delta HQ in Atlanta, as a joint meeting with the Airspace Access ARC August 6, 2018 Teleconference September 3, 2018 Teleconference September 19, 2018 In-person meeting at NBAA HQ October 1, 2018 Teleconference October 15, 2018 Teleconference November 16, 2018 In-person at Denver International Airport March 15, 2019 Teleconference 3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The SC-ARC membership represented diverse interests and viewpoints. During the course of the ARC activities described above, the three task groups met on several occasions to address the specific issues they were tasked to consider. The individual task groups’ findings and conclusions were captured in separate task group reports, which were presented to and considered by the full ARC and form the basis of the ARC’s recommendations. Although some decisions were not unanimous, the ARC reached general agreement on their recommendations to the FAA. The recommendations in this report reflect the final statements of the ARC. Because of the variety of stakeholders represented in its membership, the ARC found it necessary to address the fact that many terms were being used and often interpreted differently across stakeholders in the proceedings of the ARC. Section 4 of this report contains a description of common terms agreed to by the ARC for purposes of its activities. The initial goal of the SC-ARC was to provide a forum for the United States aviation and space communities to review and discuss a spaceport categorization scheme to be used as a primary communication tool by the FAA and the stakeholder community. During the course of its deliberations, however, the ARC concluded that a categorization scheme was unnecessary and represented only one way in which the FAA and the stakeholder community could communicate to 2 other interested stakeholders and the general public about the activities that may take place at a spaceport. Instead of developing a spaceport categorization scheme, the ARC recommends a data disclosure requirement for prospective spaceports. The specific data and factors that potential spaceports would be required to disclose are discussed in Section 5.B. of this report. The ARC also considered and makes recommendations to the FAA about the spaceport licensing process. The ARC spent considerable time identifying issues and concerns it has with the existing licensing process. Rather than make specific recommendations about how the FAA should change the licensing process, however, the ARC chose to present its concerns for the FAA to consider. Because these concerns differ between the aviation community and the commercial space community, each community’s concerns is presented separately in Section 5.A. of this report. 4. COMMON LANGUAGE This section is intended to review terms that have been used and often interpreted differently across stakeholders in the proceedings of the ARC. Initially, a survey was conducted of ARC participants to gather a catalog of terms that were confusing, misunderstood, or meant different things to different NAS stakeholders. This section is structured such that for each term, a legal or published definition is listed along with a source reference. In some cases, terms provided in this section are colloquial in nature and thus do not have an associated legal or published definition. In many cases the legal or published definition does not provide the detail needed to generate understanding of what the term actually means. In an attempt to increase understanding and correct use of these terms, a description/discussion section was added that is intended to cover the generally accepted meaning of each term as well as address any areas the same term is used with different intent across NAS stakeholders. This section is structured with the terms in alphabetical order and includes a table of applicability at the end, indicating whether the term applies to the launch/reentry operator, the launch/reentry site, the aircraft/airspace, or some combination of the three. A. Definitions Accident (Launch Site) Legal or Published Definition: Launch site accident means an unplanned event occurring during a ground activity