REQUIREMENTS TO OBTAIN A VEHICLE OPERATOR LICENSE Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
8.1 § 450.41 In accordance with § 450.41 Policy review § 450.41(e)(1) Phase 1 Policy review and approval, a policy approval is issued to • Is there a specified vehicle and approval. an applicant unless the FAA determines that configuration (set of stages/boosters) a proposed launch or reentry would or a list of configurations?
jeopardize U.S. national security or foreign • Is the type of each stage and booster policy interests, or international obligations specified?
of the United States. In accordance with • Is there a model identifier for each § 450.41(c), the FAA advises an applicant of configuration?
any issue raised during a policy review that would impede issuance of a policy approval. § 450.41(e)(2) To support the applicant's response, the FAA • For each stage, is there a description may seek additional information from an that includes:
applicant in support of interagency o Dimensions?
consultation to protect U.S. Government o Mass?
interests. The FAA consults with Department o Types of propellants, with of Defense, the Department of State, and quantities?
other Federal agencies, including the NASA, o Maximum thrust?
to address issues associated with an applicant’s proposal. During pre-application § 450.41(e)(3) consultation, the applicant will discuss any • Is there a declaration of foreignunique situations or raise any concerns with ownership?the FAA regarding its proposed operations.
§ 450.41(e)(4)The flight profile, per (e)(4), needs to be provided in order for other agencies to adequately evaluate the potential for issues.
Trajectory ranges should cover the azimuths that are contemplated, relative to each launch
• Are launch and/or reentry sites specified?
• Are contingency abort sites specified, or listed as none?
or landing site. The regions where normal impacts occur should specify the region of 13
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe ocean, any regions on land or within 200 NM • Is there a range of flight trajectories of land, and any regions intersecting foreign defining the extent of the contemplated territory, including territorial waters. licensed activity?
• If there are contingency sites, are there contingency abort profiles?
• Is there a sequence of planned events for each vehicle configuration?
• Are there regions defined of where normal impacts or landings may occur?
• Is there a list of intermediate orbits that are contemplated for each configuration?
• Is there a list of final orbits that are contemplated for each configuration?
8.2 § 450.43 Per 450.43 Payload review and • Is there identification of the payload(s) Phase 1 Payload review determination, the FAA issues a favorable or class of payloads (or specify no and payload determination for a launch or reentry payload)?
determination. to a license applicant or payload owner or operator if an applicant, payload owner, or payload operator has obtained all required licenses, authorizations, and permits and its launch or reentry would not jeopardize public health and safety, safety of property, U.S. national security or foreign policy interests, or international obligations of the United States. In § 450.43(a), the FAA clarifies that a payload review is not required to accommodate the situation where there is no payload. Part 450 preserves the ability of payload owners and operators, as well as launch or reentry operators, to request a payload review independent of a launch
• For payload(s) being launched, is each item of § 450.43(i)(1) answered?
• For payload(s) being re-entered, is each item of § 450.43(i)(2) answered?
• For unique payloads, is the information provided concerning its intended use sufficient to initiate interagency consultation?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe license application that exists in the current regulations. While the FAA will review all payloads to determine their effect on the safety of launch, the FAA will not make a determination on those aspects of payloads that are subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or the Department of Commerce or on payloads owned or operated by the U.S. Government.
During pre-application consultation the applicant will discuss the type, class and configuration of payload planned to be flown.
8.3 § 450.45 Safety review and approval.
In accordance with § 450.45 Safety review and approval, the FAA will issue a safety approval to an applicant if it determines that an applicant can conduct launch or reentry without jeopardizing public health and safety and safety of property.
The FAA also notes that an applicant must § 450.45(e)(1) General
• Is there a glossary?
• Is there a list of referenced material?
§ 450.45(e)(2) Site
• Is there a list of launch and reentry sites and contingency abort locations?
• For each site/location, Phase 1;
Phase 2-3:
Glossary and references, per § 450.45(e)(1), should be updated with satisfy the application requirements in o Are the boundaries specified? subsequent § 450.45(e) and subpart C of this part. o Are the launch or landing point submissions During pre-application consultation the locations quantitatively specified?
applicant will discuss its plans for addressing o Is the site operator specified?
the application requirements. o Are the facilities for pre-flightoperations identified?
The vehicle description is essential to the o Are the facilities for post-flight development of functional hazard analyses operations specified?
per § 450.107(b) and flight hazard analyses § 450.45(e)(3) Vehicle description per § 450.109.
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
• Does the vehicle description include (“None” may instead be specified where applicable):
o Structural characteristics?
o Thermal systems?
o Pneumatic systems?
o Propulsion systems?
o Electrical systems?
o Avionics and guidance systems?
o Propellants?
• Is there a reference to how hazardous materials are identified?
• For each vehicle configuration specified in § 450.3 Scope, is there either a table of hazardous materials or a statement that none exist?
o Does the table(s) include the type of material?
o Does the table(s) include the quantities of material?
• Are there drawings of each vehicle configuration specified in § 450.3 Scope?
• Does the drawing(s) include physical dimensions?
• Does the drawing(s) locate (e.g., label in a drawing showing relative position):
o Safety critical systems?
o Major control systems?
o Propulsion systems?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe o Pressure vessels?
o Other hardware with hazardous energy or materials (or specify that none exist)
• If the rocket is unguided, is there a table or graph of the center of pressure relative to the center of gravity?
§ 450.45(e)(4) Mission schedule
• Is there a generic processing schedule?
• Does the schedule include o Readiness activities?
o Safety-critical pre-flight operations?
o Day-of-flight activities?
§ 450.45(e)(5) Human space flight
• Is there specification as to whether there is a human on board?
• If there are humans on board, o Are the crew qualifications and training described?
o Are the crew training devices, maintenance of training records, and training schedule described?
o Is the environmental control and life support system described?
o Is the smoke detection and fire suppression system described?
o Are human factors of the vehicle and operations described?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe o Is the vehicle’s flight test verification program described?
o Is space flight participant training described?
o Are the security measures for space flight participant flights described?
§ 450.45(e)(6) Radionuclides
• Is there specification as to whether there are radionuclides on board?
• If there are radionuclides, o Are the types and quantities identified?
o Is there a reference list of radionuclide safety documentation?
o Is there a description of approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?
8.4 § 450.47 Environmental review.
The environmental review for license or permit applications must meet the application requirements of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Regulations (14 CFR part 400) to enable FAA to meet the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 to 1508), and FAA Order 1050.1F, Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures. Before the environmental review can begin, an applicant must clearly define their proposal. The proposal should consider environmental
• Is there one of the following:
o Draft Environmental Assessment (EA), o Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), o Information supporting a written re-evaluation (WR), or o Information supporting a categorical exclusion (CATEX)?
Phase 1 18
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe factors that may result in potential construction and operational constraints.
Identifying these constraints allows applicants to modify their proposed project before changes or modifications result in substantial delays or costs. The proposed project description will become what is referred to as the Proposed Action in the environmental review.
SYSTEM SAFETY PROGRAM Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
9.1 § 450.103 A documented system safety program Documented system safety program and Phase 1 System establishes and defines pertinent implementation methods over the lifecycle.
safety management principles, organizational program. structures, engineering processes, and safety analysis methodologies meant to ensure public safety is maintained throughout the lifecycle.
§ 450.103(a) Safety organization
• Is there a description of the safety organization including the roles of “Mission Director”, “Safety Official”, or other key personnel?
• Does it describe lines of communication?
• Does it describe approval authority including the manner that safety concerns are addressed?
§ 450.103(b) Hazard management
• Is there a description of the methods to assess the system for hazards?
• Does it discuss methods for different phases of the lifecycle?
• Does it discuss validating the hazard control strategy determination?
• Is there a description of how updates to hazard analyses are communicated through the organization?
• Is there a description of how updates to hazard analyses are implemented through the organization?
• Does the description identify whether flight hazard analysis may be required?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
• If the flight hazard analysis is required, does it discuss tracking of:
o Hazards?
o Risks?
o Mitigation measures?
o Verification activities?
§ 450.103(c) Configuration management and control
• Is there a description of the Configuration management and control process?
• Does it include safety-critical systems?
• Does it include safety-critical system documentation?
• Does it include verification of correctness of versions?
• Does it include documenting versions for each licensed activity?
§ 450.103(d) Post-flight data review
• Is there a description of the post-flight data review process?
• Does it discuss consistency comparison of the post-flight data with:
o Hazard control strategy determinations?
o Flight hazard analyses?
o Flight safety analyses?
o Mitigation and hazard control measures?
• Does it discuss resolution of identified inconsistencies?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
• Does it discuss anomaly identification?
• Does it discuss addressing anomalies with respect to:
o Flight hazard analyses?
o Flight safety analyses?
o Safety-critical systems?
10 HAZARD CONTROL STRATEGIES.
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
10.1 § 450.107 The approach to determining and validating • Are phases of flight identified? Phase 1;
Hazard control hazard control strategies is an iterative • Do phases cover the entire period: Phase 2-3 for strategies process. The functional hazard analysis is o For orbital launch, from liftoff completion of determination. utilized to ensure that all potential hazards to the public have a determined hazard control strategy. A functional hazard analysis provides a holistic, systematic approach to identifying potential hazards and supports the validation of adequacy for determined hazard control strategies. If the hazards to the public are potentially mitigated, then the selected strategies are developed, and the supporting through orbital insertion, and through all component impacts or landings?
o For suborbital launch, from liftoff through all component impacts or landings?
o For disposal, from the initiation of the deorbit through final impact?
o For reentry, from the initiation of § 450.107(c) validation effort data is used as general input for the flight safety analysis. If adequate mitigation is not validated by supporting data, then the hazard control strategy should be revisited. If validation is successful, then the flight safety analysis is used to demonstrate whether the safety criteria are satisfied. If the safety criteria cannot be met, then additional hazard controls must be implemented, in accordance with § 450.107(c).
The identification of what is safety-critical through the functional hazard analysis is essential for determining the scope of §§ 450.141, 450.143, 450.149, 450.151,
450.153, 450.155, 450.157, 450.163, and
450.165.
the deorbit through all component impacts or landing?
• Do functional hazard analyses cover every phase of flight?
• Does each functional hazard analysis account for:
o Functional failures?
o Safety-critical-systems?
o A timeline of safety-critical events?
• Are there results of the functional hazard analysis (validation of hazard control strategies)?
• Is there a hazard control strategy identified for each phase of flight?
• Is each hazard control strategy described?
Section Narrative Objective Criteria to Determine if the Application is Complete Timeframe
10.2 § 450.108 Development of flight safety limits, which is This section only applies if flight abort is Phase 2 Flight abort. most of this section, is performed in concert with the flight safety analysis. See the introduction to Flight Safety Analysis in this document for more discussion.
Flight abort rules are the conditions under which a flight safety system must abort the flight. Some flight abort rules reference flight safety limits. Normally, flight abort rules are identified as a hazard control strategy in § 450.107. If it is not, nothing needs to be submitted.
§ 450.108(g)(1) Flight abort methods
• Does the flight abort methodology reference an accepted means of compliance?
provided as a concise set of criteria for a person or computer program to very quickly make a conclusive determination.
§ 450.108(g)(2) Evaluation methods & data
• Is there a description of how each Flight safety limits are quantitative boundaries, normally based on evaluation of the vehicle state vector (and derived parameters, such as IIP). Normally, flight safety limits are provided in datafiles.
“Critical parameters” are those parameters that demonstrate the vehicle is capable of completing safe flight through the upcoming phase of flight. Examples are vehicle thrust and perigee altitude. Commonly, the “list” and the “description” are provided as a table, where the description is more complete and is flight safety limit is evaluated during flight?
• Is there a description of how each flight abort rule is implemented during flight?
• Are quantitative criteria provided for each flight safety limit for a representative flight?
• Are quantitative criteria provided for each parameter in each flight abort rule for a representative flight?
quite precise. • Is there a list of critical parameters used in the flight abort criteria?
• Is there a description of each critical parameter?