Charting the Course: Considerations and Frameworks for Investigating and Regulating Commercial Spaceflight Safety

Abstract

Spaceflight is an inherently risky activity, raising safety concerns for commercial launch operators, regulators, and safety professionals. Consequently, safety is a primary component of national regulation. Recently, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented an updated streamlined licensing regime reinforcing safety standards while providing industry with flexibility in demonstrating safety requirements in regards to protecting public health, safety and property from the ultra-hazardous nature of spaceflight. In 2023, 117 commercial launches were conducted in the United States alone, a stark increase from 10 years earlier. This surge in commercial spaceflight activities underlines concerns involving safety awareness, risk assessment and investigation procedures, and the potential scope of accidents, incidents, and mishaps. In 2022, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA signed a new interagency agreement for space accident investigation. The NTSB has investigated commercial spaceflight accidents since 1993. However, the space industry is still within a statutory learning period, and the FAA has authority in regulating commercial spaceflight, raising questions on inter-agency jurisdiction, industry development, and appropriate space safety investigation procedures and protocols to address the needs of a growing space transportation industry. The nature of spaceflight technologies, operations, mission architectures (rocket launch vs. air-launch), and flight trajectories (suborbital vs. orbital) differs from prior transportation modalities. So what are the practical implications facing the professional safety and accident investigation community? This work aims at informing and contributing to the discussion on commercial spaceflight safety by providing an interdisciplinary perspective in law, policy, and safety to identify and address crucial aspects for commercial spaceflight safety. Specifically, this paper provides an overview of safety requirements for spaceflight, to include: a brief historical safety review, highlighting the role and scope of space authorities, outlining the safety requirements for commercial launch operators, and addressing key issues and challenges for commercial spaceflight safety going forward.