NewSpace Journal » Regulatory

Virgin: Irish article “entirely inaccurate”

Jeff Foust — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000

Virgin Galactic has responded to yesterday’s report that the company is only accepting US citizens for its flights by, in effect, saying the article is completely off base. The Irish Independent article claimed that an Irishman living in England, Cyril Bennis, had been told by the company that it was currently only accepting US citizens. A Virgin official said Monday that Bennis had inquired about flying non-US citizens on its flights and was told that they were accepting deposits from Americans and others alike “because we fully intend to be able to fly these pioneering people”. (That would include, of course, Sir Richard Branson, who has previously said he and his family would go on the first SpaceShipTwo commercial flight.) The company will do so “in a way which fully complies with all applicable laws and regulations including those which relate to US export controls”; as noted yesterday, there’s already precedent for allowing spaceflight participants to be trained for such flights without going through ITAR-related paperwork. “Unfortunately we were not contacted by the Independent before the piece was published and so had no chance to correct an entirely inaccurate report,” the Virgin official said.

Weekend roundup

Jeff Foust — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:12:55 +0000

Is Virgin Galactic only accepting US citizens now? That’s the claim of an article Sunday in the Irish Independent, which reports that an Irishman living in England “received a legal notice from Virgin Galactic stating that at present only US citizens can be considered for inclusion.” The company has signed up and accepted deposits from a number of people outside the US, so it’s not clear what would cause this change in direction, if in fact correct. The obvious concern would be something having to do with US export control regulations, but Bigelow Aerospace won a ruling last year that ITAR-related agreements were not needed for prospective spaceflight participants.

Even without that issue, Bruce Dickinson isn’t interested in flying on Virgin Galactic. The 52-year-old British lead singer of Iron Maiden, who is a licensed commercial pilot and Star Trek fan, would seem to be in the ideal demographic for space tourism, but he tells QMI Media he’s not interested right now because of price and safety issues. “I think I’d want to take a long hard look at those little suborbital things before I got on one,” he said. “And for the amount of money it costs, well, I could think of a lot of things you could do that would be a lot more fun, and last a lot longer.”

Those who do want to, and are able to, fly on Virgin Galactic may be able to enjoy a little bit of a shortcut to Spaceport America. The New Mexico Spaceport Authority approved Friday a proposal to pave a road on the southern approach to the spaceport. The road, from the Upham exit on I-25, will shorten the travel time for people coming to the spaceport from Las Cruces from one hour and 40 minutes down to one hour as they will no longer have to take the current northern approach through Truth and Consequences. The money for paving the road comes from “unexpected savings” on other aspects of the project because of a “good bid climate”, freeing up the $11.5 million needed for the paving.

That decision, as well as the FAA’s award of a commercial space transportation “center of excellence” to New Mexico State University, get the seal of approval of the Las Cruces Sun-News in an editorial Sunday. With a greater emphasis on commercial spaceflight emerging in national space policy, “NMSU and Spaceport America are poised to lead the way in a burgeoning new industry with limitless potential.”

Virginia wants money, New Mexico wants laws

Jeff Foust — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:31:54 +0000

New Mexico and Virginia have been among the leading states in supporting entrepreneurial space efforts. New Mexico committed $200 million to develop Spaceport America and lure Virgin Galactic to their state; Virginia has supported the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), bringing Orbital Sciences’ Taurus 2 rocket there as well as passing laws to support space activities in the state. The two states, though, are continuing their efforts to support the industry, although in different directions.

In Virginia, new governor Bob McDonnell expressed his support for funding for MARS in a speech to state legislators Monday. “Governor Kaine committed to invest $1.3 million in the Virginia Spaceport,” McDonnell said, referring to his predecessor, Tim Kaine. “We can make Wallops Island the top commercial Spaceport in America, and I ask you to keep that money in place so that we can aggressively recruit aerospace companies and promote space tourism initiatives.”

A day later, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a staunch advocate of Spaceport America, mentioned the spaceport in his speech. “I’m pleased to report that Spaceport America is ahead of schedule and under budget,” he said in his “State of the State” address. “For those who doubt if the Spaceport will bring in business, you should know that Virgin Galactic has over forty two million dollars deposited for more than three hundred reservations.”

Richardson also called on legislators to “pass legislation allowing participants to assume the risks of spaceflight.” That’s a reference to the “Space Flight Informed Consent Act”, legislation introduced into the state Senate this year that would indemnify vehicle operators from claims of liability provided that spaceflight participants sign a waiver (with the exception of cases of “gross negligence”). Richardson noted the legislation is needed for New Mexico to stay competitive with Virginia, which was the first state to pass indemnification legislation, in 2007, as well as Florida and Texas, which also passed related bills since then.

Spaceport America developments

Jeff Foust — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:17:51 +0000

Will Spaceport America get a second paved access road? Right now the primary access is from the north, via the town of Truth or Consequences, on a road paved earlier this year to permit spaceport construction to begin. That results in a fairly roundabout trip for visitors coming from Las Cruces and points south: about 90 minutes from Las Cruces. Earlier this week the New Mexico Spaceport Authority said it seek $7.5 million from the state to pave a second road that runs from I-25 at Upham, NM north to the spaceport. If paved, the 26-mile (42-kilometer) route could cut travel time from Las Cruces to the spaceport in half. Funds for the paving were authorized by the state legislature in 2006 as part of the overall spaceport project, but not funded.

Later this week, though, state officials backtracked: Fred Mondragón, head of the state’s Economic Development Department and chairman of the spaceport authority, said they would not seek state funds for the road because of a projected budget shortfall that’s expected to sharply limit capital expenditures in the state. Instead, he said that they will look for federal money for the road, or try to find savings from other parts of the overall project to get the road paved.

Mondragón also said the spaceport authority will seek legislation next year that would provide a liability indemnification for space tourism operators in the state, similar to existing legislation in Virginia, Florida, and most recently, Texas. The bill would not protect operators from gross negligence but would provide some protection in the event of accidents, and thus reduce insurance premiums for operators like Virgin Galactic. A similar bill was proposed in 2009 but not approved by legislators, concerned that it provided too much protection to operators; the 2010 version will be scaled back, although the report wasn’t specific as to how.

So that’s why Aabar invested in Virgin?

Jeff Foust — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:20:19 +0000

At last week’s unveiling of SpaceShipTwo in Mojave, Virgin Galactic commercial director Stephen Attenborough said that it was the company’s relative strong performance during the current recession—a “substantial net increase” in customers—that attracted the attention of Aabar Investments, the Abu Dhabi fund that purchased a 32-percent stake in the company for $280 million.

But a comment by the head of Aabar suggests that it’s interested in Virgin for a different reason: point-to-point transportation. Khadem Abdulla Al Qubaisi tells Arabian Business, “The point here is to use Abu Dhabi and LA as a hub, or somewhere in the US, and to fly from Abu Dhabi and land in the other place in two or three hours.”

If so, that’s a long-term vision. SpaceShipTwo is not capable of point-to-point transportation (not over any meaningful distances, at least) and it would presumably require at least another generation of technology development to build the systems capable of the faster speeds (and assorted other technical issues) needed to do intercontinental flight: all that would take years to develop, particularly at the current pace of work and investment. Also, there are no plans for SpaceShipTwo, or other suborbital vehicles, to fly out of LAX or other Los Angeles-area airports (unless one considered Mojave, 150 kilometers away, as in the LA area.)

Aabar, though, has some near-term issues to deal with, such as getting its investment in Virgin approved. The Times of London reported Monday that Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) has started a review of the Aabar investment, giving it a level of scrutiny than only a small fraction of such foreign investments get. The Times claims that the CFIUS review had created “a growing concern” in the UAE that the deal might need to be altered, or could even be blocked. Why CFIUS, which usually limits its investigations to deals with national security concerns, was looking into the Aabar-Virgin deal wasn’t clear; it could be because of Scaled Composites’ other work with the US military, or, perhaps, because of other applications of the hybrid rocket motor or other technology being developed for the system. (Also recall that Aabar is providing Virgin an additional $100 million to develop an air-launch smallsat launcher system using WhiteKnightTwo.)

Al Qubaisi told Arabian Business that he was “unconcerned” about the CFIUS investigation. “I think everything is smooth and there is no problem at all,” he said, adding that he expected the review to be completed in a few weeks.

A review of space tourism in Europe

Jeff Foust — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:53:19 +0000

I was on vacation last week in London, but that did not stop me from making a visit to the Royal Aeronautical Society last Tuesday for their “Space Tourism: A New Industry in the Making” conference. I’ve written up some highlights of the conference in The Space Review this week.

One of the bigger developments at the event was a confirmation by Hugues Laporte-Weywada of EADS Astrium that their suborbital spaceplane project, launched with great fanfare just over two years ago at the Paris Air Show, is going into stasis because of a lack of funding. They have been working on some key technologies, including the LOX/methane rocket engine that the vehicle will use, but now that this work is wrapping up the project will on until (or if) they can raise the €1 billion (US$1.4 billion) they estimate they need to develop the vehicle. Laporte-Weywada conceded that this means that they won’t be the first to enter the market, but tried to liken the situation to that encountered by Airbus, which entered the commercial jetliner market many years after Boeing and other companies but is now an industry giant.

Another area of focus was on the regulatory situation, particularly in the UK. Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic noted that no other country has a regulatory environment as favorable as the US, thanks to the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, although Sweden is the closest, thanks to existing law that has governed sounding rocket launches there for decades. (A representative from Spaceport Sweden noted that they are working with the Swedish National Space Board to get final clarification on the regulations that would govern suborbital commercial human spaceflight there.) The UK has no enabling law, which is hindering proposals to establish a spaceport in northern Scotland. Whitehorn said he wanted to talk with other British space companies to seek a comprehensive overhaul of UK space policy (including but not limited to commercial suborbital spaceflight regulation), with an eye towards the national elections planned for next year.

Most space tourists avoid ITAR

Jeff Foust — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:16:01 +0000

I posted on this yesterday at Space Politics, but if you missed it there a summary of this latest, positive development regarding ITAR (US export control regulations) as they apply to space tourism is below:

The Economist reported Wednesday that regulators have agreed that prospective spaceflight participants will not need any export control agreements to fly on US suborbital or orbital vehicles. There had been concern that non-US customers might need a technical assistance agreement (TAA) in order to legally obtain technical data about the vehicles they’re flying on, including basic information that would be necessary for safety. Bigelow Aerospace asked for an exemption, arguing that, in the article’s words, “taking a passenger flight does not mean you can build an aeroplane”. The State Department apparently agrees, as Bigelow’s Mike Gold said they got “everything we could want” from the ruling, although citizens of some countries (China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan) would be still not be allowed to fly.

In a related note, the AIAA is holding a half-day meeting titled “Entrepreneurial Space and Export Control: Red Tape in the Final Frontier” next Wednesday the 29th in Washington. Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger will be the keynote speaker, followed by panels providing the views of industry and government. Presumably this recent ruling will be one topic of discussion…

Video: Ken Davidian at ISPCS

Jeff Foust — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:47:55 +0000

This weekend was a milestone not just for Armadillo Aerospace and the Lunar Lander Challenge but for one of the people behind the scenes, Ken Davidian. The former manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program, Ken is leaving his position leading commercial policy development in NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate for a similar position within the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. I chatted briefly with Ken about his old and new jobs, and his thoughts about the Lunar Lander Challenge, earlier in the week at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight:

Spaceport tax delay in New Mexico

Jeff Foust — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:31:21 +0000

The attorney general of New Mexico has concluded that a local tax increase passed this spring should not be collected starting January 1 as originally planned because of a lack of a mechanism to spend the revenues. Voters in Doña Ana County, which includes the city of Las Cruces, passed the quarter-cent gross receipts tax increase in April; at the time the tax was set to take effect on January 1. However, county officials had asked that the introduction of the tax be delayed because the money can’t be spent until a spaceport tax district is created, and that district can’t form until at least one other county also approves a similar tax. Two other counties in southern New Mexico, Otero and Sierra, also plan to hold tax referenda, but not until spring 2008 at the earliest.

UK space policy and space tourism

Jeff Foust — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:21:18 +0000

Earlier this week the Select Committee on Science and Technology of the British Parliament issued a report on UK space policy. What’s noteworthy about this report is that it includes a section about space tourism. This section outlines the recent developments in vehicles and companies to serve primarily the suborbital market, including Virgin Galactic, of course. The report also deals with the potential environmental impact of space tourism (previously discussed here), offering the views of both those who think emissions from suborbital spacecraft is a major concern and those who think it isn’t an issue. (The former UK science minister, Malcolm Wicks, takes a compromise stance, saying, “the environmental impact in terms of carbon emissions might be something that should be looked at most carefully in judging whether this is a societal priority.”)

The report doesn’t conclude that the British government should be spending money to help develop space tourism vehicles specifically, or on the industry in general. However, the report does suggest that the UK should do more to create a supportive regulatory environment, citing in particular current law in the US, which is “leading the world in this area”. (The report goes a little too far when it claims that the 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (CSLAA) “created an Office of Commercial Space Transportation under the auspices of the US Federal Aviation Administration that is responsible for regulating the industry.” That office had existed, either as part of the FAA or as a standalone entity, for about two decades before the CSLAA was enacted; the bill simply gave the existing office the authority to regulate commercial passenger spaceflight.) The report recommends that the British National Space Centre “use its consultation on regulation to discuss the establishment of a regulatory framework and responsible body with the relevant authorities.”

How influential and effective this report will be isn’t clear, particularly for an observer like myself on the other side of the Atlantic. The report does suggest that former science minister Wicks wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about space tourism: he’s quoted in the report as saying, “of all the things I am excited about space tourism is not at the top of my list.” It’s not clear what level of interest the new science minister, Ian Pearson, has in space tourism, or space in general, as he’s been on the job since only early this month.