Over-flight Risk Considerations for the Launch of an ELV Rocket to an ISS Inclination

Abstract

Congress granted the FAA the authority to license commercial launch and reentry operations to ensure protection of public, property, the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and to encourage, facilitate, and promote U.S. Commercial Space Transportation. To meet this responsibility, the FAA performs safety evaluations of license applications to conduct commercial launches from the United States or outside the United States by a U.S. citizen or an entity organized under the laws of the United States. This paper discusses an example FAA analysis of the risk to the public resulting from the launch of a space vehicle to the International Space Station from a launch site at the Eastern Range, headquartered at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located in Wallops, Virginia. This work is presented to address some of the challenges launch operators competing for the Commercial Orbital Transportations Services (COTS) and the FAA face in their efforts to promote commercial space activities while ensuring the launch operator meets their regulatory obligations and responsibility for protecting the public.