The Space Economy Is Booming—A New EO Intends For Regs To Catch Up

On Wednesday, President Trump signed an EO titled Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry.

The commercial space industry has been somewhat on edge since Trump’s initial nominee to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman, was pulled from consideration. Wednesday’s order, however, should assuage those concerns.

Acting NASA Administrator and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the main goal of the order was to streamline the process to make it easier to launch and return commercially owned spacecraft in America.

Commercial space is the quintessential American industry–the type of innovation that could only occur in a country with an appetite for exploration, robust capital markets, and the world's greatest innovators. But our leadership today is eroding a bit. We have 60 percent market share now compared to 100 percent only a few short years ago.

The reason–as Secretary Duffy said–is quite simple: too many rules and regulations that are not keeping pace with the innovation happening in the industry.

What exactly is the scale of that pace? Over the first 35 years of the commercial space industry, there had been 1,000 private launches in the U.S. 1,000 more are projected in just the next five years. Cape Canaveral now launches a commercial spaceflight about three times a week.

This EO recognizes we need a more dynamic regulatory structure to keep pace with the growing scope of commercial space activities.

Launch and Reentry Licensing

The most griped about regulatory burden is something called Part 450–which is responsible for launch and reentry licenses. Basically, if you want to launch and return a rocket, you need a license. Makes sense. But the process obtaining a license has become far too cumbersome, overreaching, and has not kept pace with the safety innovations of space vehicles.

In a September post, SpaceX said “the licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd.”

But it’s not just SpaceX. As the space economy continues to expand, there are a lot more applications for Part 450 licenses.

Take startup Varda Space for example. Varda is building factories in space for compounds that benefit from the microgravity environment–including pharmaceuticals. They launch the satellite, produce the drug, and bring it back to Earth–thus prompting a 450 license. Varda CEO William Bruey said “It took us two and a half years to build a spacecraft that got into space, and almost as long to get the license.”

The EO intends to change that by removing rules that are now met by the modern safety standards vehicles have–including self destruction should the reentry face complications, as well as removing superfluous NEPA reviews that delay launches

Space Factories

As demonstrated by the Varda example, manufacturing and mining are some of the most promising space activities of the future. But the process of obtaining a mission authorization for these novel activities is opaque and cumbersome–especially if there is no vehicle reentry (which would be covered by getting a Part 450 license).

Here’s an example: say a company wants to build a factory in space that 3D prints dozens of massive satellite antennas that are too big to carry on a rocket from Earth. Right now, there is no clear agency authorizing or evaluating that kind of manufacturing in space. This order intends to "expedite and streamline” those authorizations.

For us, this is among the most exciting applications of an expanding space economy. We like Earth and intend to stay here. So the idea of maximizing the space environment to improve life here is quite promising.

But all of this new space activity begs the question, “do we have enough spaceports to launch from?” The answer is not only do we not have enough spaceports, but the current spaceport infrastructure is being challenged by municipal regulators that are putting a governor on the launch cadence.

Administration policy will now examine how some states (cough, California) are abusing authority to gum up spaceport operations and evaluate whether to remove that authority.

But we can’t just free up our existing infrastructure. We need whole new spaceports too–which this order will help create.

All in all, the government is sending a clear message that America will not let a champion industry fall by the wayside.

FIELD NOTES

WHOOP CEO WIll Ahmed hit the business news circuit yesterday to make the case that the FDA’s interpretation of the company’s latest blood pressure insights as a “medical device” is wrong.

+++

Tired of the influencers rage baiting? Well, those that are using their platform to spread the word of innovation and technology are having their moment.

+++

Rainmaker’s Augustus Doricko penned an op-ed earlier this week describing the important (and safe) role of cloud seeding for America’s farmers. 

Thanks For Reading and Have a Great Day.

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸