Proposal for Organizing The Industrial Cooperation on Commercial Space Safety and Technical Standards

Abstract

ABSTRACT For commercial human spaceflight to flourish and expand, industry has to develop a notion of safety as the collective responsibility and common strategic business goal of all members. In 2004, the U.S. private spaceflight industry welcomed a law (i.e. the Commercial Space Launch Amendment Act (CSLAA)) postponing the ability of FAA to issue safety regulations, except for aspects of public safety until 2012. The deadline was later moved to 2015. The law, currently undergoing a second postponement until 2020, offers a historic opportunity for space industry to engage in the development of a comprehensive set of industrial consensus standards, based on the experience gained in more than 50years of government programs. This paper proposes framework and rules of an industrial cooperation for consensus standards, in the form of textual content for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Those standards, when established, could become the basis of a mixed regulatory regime, where industry takes care of self-certifying the vehicles safety, while government regulators would continue to cover launch and reentry operations for all aspect of public safety. This paper also suggest to carry out standardization activities within the broader scope of a Space Safety Institute.