Suborbital Institute Congratulates Scaled Composites, Applauds FAA Action

Suborbital Institute Congratulates Scaled Composites, Applauds FAA
Action
April 7, 2004

Norman, OK -- The Suborbital Institute today congratulated Scaled
Composites of Mojave, CA for being the first firm to receive a Federal
launch license for a piloted suborbital rocket. The Institute
applauded the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial
Space Transportation for its action in issuing the historic launch
license, which was announced on April 7th.

Scaled Composites, run by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is already in
the process of test flying Spaceship One, a winged suborbital rocket
designed to win the $10 million X-Prize.

"We believe this action is another step in opening the road to space,
creating a new industry and new opportunities for all Americans," said
Institute Chairman Patrick Bahn. "Regulatory barriers have been a
concern to suborbital entrepreneurs and investors, but this action
shows that things are heading in the right direction.

The Institute praised the FAA for streamlining past regulations that
were considered overly burdensome, while protecting public safety at
the same time. The Institute plans to work with the FAA and
legislators to further streamline regulations in the future.

The Institute was instrumental in supporting the Commercial Space
Launch Amendments Act of 2004, which recently passed the House of
Representatives by a wide margin. One provision of the CSLA Act would
create a class of experimental launch permits, making it easier for
companies like Scaled to test experimental rockets.

Members and supporters of the Suborbital Institute will go to Capitol
Hill on Monday and Tuesday, May 17-18, to lobby for passage of the
CSLA Act, which is now in the hands of the Senate. Pat Bahn extended
an open invitation for supporters of commercial human spaceflight to
join Institute members in the lobbying event. Interested parties may
email to sign up.

The Suborbital Institute is an industry association whose members
include many firms involved in the development of suborbital
commercial human spaceflight, including TGV Rockets, Armadillo
Aerospace, Vela Technology Development, XCOR Aerospace, and X-Rocket,
LLC. Membership is also open to members of the public who support the
development of the suborbital commercial human spaceflight industry.

As an X PRIZE competitor, let me add PanAero's congratulations
--both to Scaled Composites and to the FAA. Surprisingly enough,
the system seems to be working the way it should be.

The nature of PanAero's concept for the X PRIZE allowed
a try for the X PRIZE entirely under less burdensome experimental
aircraft rules. While this could have been a competitive
advantage, I am pleased that Scaled's application did not get
hung up on technicalities--particularly with respect to the
requirements for an environmental impact statement that is not
really all that relevant.

In the longer term, we all win with reasonable regulatory
procedures.

Best regards,
Len (Cormier)
PanAero, Inc.
(change x to len)
http;//www.tour2space.com

(Edward Wright) wrote in message . com...
Suborbital Institute Congratulates Scaled Composites, Applauds FAA
Action
April 7, 2004

Norman, OK -- The Suborbital Institute today congratulated Scaled
Composites of Mojave, CA for being the first firm to receive a Federal
launch license for a piloted suborbital rocket. The Institute
applauded the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial
Space Transportation for its action in issuing the historic launch
license, which was announced on April 7th.

Scaled Composites, run by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is already in
the process of test flying Spaceship One, a winged suborbital rocket
designed to win the $10 million X-Prize.

"We believe this action is another step in opening the road to space,
creating a new industry and new opportunities for all Americans," said
Institute Chairman Patrick Bahn. "Regulatory barriers have been a
concern to suborbital entrepreneurs and investors, but this action
shows that things are heading in the right direction.

The Institute praised the FAA for streamlining past regulations that
were considered overly burdensome, while protecting public safety at
the same time. The Institute plans to work with the FAA and
legislators to further streamline regulations in the future.

The Institute was instrumental in supporting the Commercial Space
Launch Amendments Act of 2004, which recently passed the House of
Representatives by a wide margin. One provision of the CSLA Act would
create a class of experimental launch permits, making it easier for
companies like Scaled to test experimental rockets.

Members and supporters of the Suborbital Institute will go to Capitol
Hill on Monday and Tuesday, May 17-18, to lobby for passage of the
CSLA Act, which is now in the hands of the Senate. Pat Bahn extended
an open invitation for supporters of commercial human spaceflight to
join Institute members in the lobbying event. Interested parties may
email to sign up.

The Suborbital Institute is an industry association whose members
include many firms involved in the development of suborbital
commercial human spaceflight, including TGV Rockets, Armadillo
Aerospace, Vela Technology Development, XCOR Aerospace, and X-Rocket,
LLC. Membership is also open to members of the public who support the
development of the suborbital commercial human spaceflight industry.

Len wrote:
The nature of PanAero's concept for the X PRIZE allowed
a try for the X PRIZE entirely under less burdensome experimental
aircraft rules.**While*this*could*have*been*a*competitive
advantage, I am pleased that Scaled's application did not get
hung up on technicalities--particularly with respect to the
requirements for an environmental impact statement that is not
really all that relevant.

So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right? No "just for testing purposes" or similar limits?
I am impressed...

Robert Kitzmueller

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 18:09:13 +0200, in a place far, far away, Robert
Kitzmueller made the phosphor on my
monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Len wrote:
The nature of PanAero's concept for the X PRIZE allowed
a try for the X PRIZE entirely under less burdensome experimental
aircraft rules.**While*this*could*have*been*a*competitive
advantage, I am pleased that Scaled's application did not get
hung up on technicalities--particularly with respect to the
requirements for an environmental impact statement that is not
really all that relevant.

So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right? No "just for testing purposes" or similar limits?

Yes, a license (and complying with it in terms of passenger
qualification and training) is all that's required

I wrote:
So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right?

Not necessarily, there may be restrictions on it. My guess would be that
it's just for test flights, but I haven't seen details yet.

The FAA announcement doesn't say "test" but it does say that it is for a
sequence of flights "spanning a one-year period".

This isn't certification, the process that is applied to aircraft. That's
good, in that the current certification process is extremely onerous and
these vehicles quite probably *can't* be certified, so licensing is the
only option. But there is a downside: certification, once accomplished,
is pretty much blanket permission to use that aircraft type for that type
of service. Whereas licensing can and does come with strings attached,
e.g. time limits. (Traditional launch licensing often requires a separate
license for *each flight*.)
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:21:42 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(Henry Spencer) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

In article ,
Robert Kitzmueller wrote:
So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right?

Not necessarily, there may be restrictions on it. My guess would be that
it's just for test flights, but I haven't seen details yet.

That's a good point. They probably got a license to fly without
passengers, because that would be easier, and they wouldn't have to
include the qualification/training protocols in the application.

(Edward Wright) wrote in message . com...
Suborbital Institute Congratulates Scaled Composites, Applauds FAA
Action
April 7, 2004

Norman, OK -- The Suborbital Institute today congratulated Scaled
Composites of Mojave, CA for being the first firm to receive a Federal
launch license for a piloted suborbital rocket. The Institute
applauded the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial
Space Transportation for its action in issuing the historic launch
license, which was announced on April 7th.

Scaled Composites, run by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is already in
the process of test flying Spaceship One, a winged suborbital rocket
designed to win the $10 million X-Prize.

"We believe this action is another step in opening the road to space,
creating a new industry and new opportunities for all Americans," said
Institute Chairman Patrick Bahn. "Regulatory barriers have been a
concern to suborbital entrepreneurs and investors, but this action
shows that things are heading in the right direction.

The Institute praised the FAA for streamlining past regulations that
were considered overly burdensome, while protecting public safety at
the same time. The Institute plans to work with the FAA and
legislators to further streamline regulations in the future.


And Scaled flew SpaceShipOne this morning (8 Apr). I don't have the
data yet but from our spot on the ground watching it looked like the
rocket engine burned for about 35 seconds, and Pete said he got to
105K altitude. "The sky is black," he said. Picture perfect landing.
Congratulations to the Scaled team!!! Hoorah!

h (Rand Simberg) wrote in message .. .
On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:21:42 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(Henry Spencer) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

In article ,
Robert Kitzmueller wrote:
So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right?

Not necessarily, there may be restrictions on it. My guess would be that
it's just for test flights, but I haven't seen details yet.

That's a good point. They probably got a license to fly without
passengers, because that would be easier, and they wouldn't have to
include the qualification/training protocols in the application.

It's still an important milestone. Technicalities of minor
relavence--like an environmental impact statement for something
that is not likely to have much environmental impact--did not
result in the kind of delay that I had feared. Environmental
impact statements for a new location could take one or two
years. So: my hat is off to FAA.

Best regards,
Len (Cormier)
PanAero, Inc.
(change x to len)
http://www.tour2space.com

Henry Spencer wrote:
I wrote:
So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right?

Not necessarily, there may be restrictions on it. My guess would be that
it's just for test flights, but I haven't seen details yet.

The FAA announcement doesn't say "test" but it does say that it is for a
sequence of flights "spanning a one-year period".

This isn't certification, the process that is applied to aircraft. That's
good, in that the current certification process is extremely onerous and
these vehicles quite probably *can't* be certified, so licensing is the
only option. But there is a downside: certification, once accomplished,
is pretty much blanket permission to use that aircraft type for that type
of service. Whereas licensing can and does come with strings attached,
e.g. time limits. (Traditional launch licensing often requires a separate
license for *each flight*.)

An example of such is I believe the launch licence that Starchaser got from
Australia.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

Henry Spencer wrote:

In article ,
Robert Kitzmueller wrote:
So this license is all they need for comercial flights involving paying
passengers, right?

No. You will also need insurance.