Politech: House votes to help commercial launches into space

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Text of the bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.05382:

Note that the vote was partisan. All but two Republicans supported the 
bill and most Democrats opposed it:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll541.xml

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http://www.house.gov/science/press/108/108-324.htm

HOUSE PASSES COMMERICAL SPACE BILL; Legislation Establishes Clear 
Regulatory Framework for Emerging Industry
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 20, 2004– By a vote of 269 to 120, the House 
of Representatives today passed legislation that seeks to promote the 
nascent commercial human space flight industry while establishing a 
clear and balanced regulatory framework for space tourism.
The bill, H.R. 5382, Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, was 
introduced by Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Dana 
Rohrabacher (R-CA) and is largely based on a previous bill, H.R. 3752. 
That bill passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in March 
of this year by a vote of 402-1. Following extensive bipartisan 
negotiations with the Senate and industry on H.R. 3752, Rohrabacher 
introduced H.R. 5382 as an amended version of the bill on Thursday. The 
Senate must now pass H.R. 5382 to clear the measure for the President, 
who is expected to sign the legislation. (Senate passage is uncertain, 
but could occur later today.)
“Today marks a milestone in the history of aviation,” stated House 
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY). “This legislation 
will help promote commercial space travel by placing the industry on a 
firm regulatory footing, while ensuring the industry is sufficiently 
unconstrained to evolve and develop the new technologies that will one 
day make journeys into the heavens as real as flights overseas.”
Chairman Rohrabacher said, “H.R. 5382 provides a crucial first step in 
enabling tomorrow's space entrepreneurs to continue the trend of making 
technological breakthroughs. We must do all we can to ensure that their 
efforts continue to bring us hope in the future. I am grateful to my 
colleagues' support of this bill so that the emerging commercial human 
space flight industry can have a successful beginning in giving the 
American people the chance to fly into space.”
H.R. 5382 will help promote the emerging commercial human space flight 
industry by putting it on a more solid regulatory footing. It will also 
make it easier to launch new types of reusable suborbital rockets by 
allowing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue experimental 
permits that can be granted more quickly and with fewer requirements 
than licenses.
Among the negotiated changes in the bill is increased authority for FAA 
to regulate launches with regard to the safety of passengers and crew. 
In both the original and current versions, FAA is given full 
jurisdiction to regulate launch vehicles and procedures to ensure the 
safety of non-participants (i.e.: third parties on the ground). H.R. 
5382 goes further in safety regulation by allowing FAA to regulate 
launch vehicles and procedures that have been shown to be dangerous or 
potentially dangerous to passengers and crew. The bill also ensures 
participants are fully aware of the inherent risks of human space travel 
by requiring launch companies to provide customers and crew with a 
disclaimer warning that the federal government has not certified the 
safety of the vehicle.
At a July, 2002 joint hearing of Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics 
and the Senate Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee, witnesses 
agreed that commercial spaceflight should not be regulated as 
stringently as the commercial aviation industry. Elon Musk, CEO of 
SPACEX suggested that the government “adopt a nurturing and supportive 
approach to new launch vehicle developments,” and “recognize the early 
and experimental nature of the industry.”


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