FAA Grants License to the First Reusable Spacecraft
Scaled Composites allowed to conduct sub-orbital flights
by Sam Coniglio
by Sam Coniglio
For the first time ever, the US Department of Transportation has granted a license to a company that will fly a spacecraft not only up, but back down. Issued on April 1, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation grants Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, the clearance to conduct a series of sub-orbital flights for a one-year period. Sub-orbital means a space vehicle reaches the edge of space--defined as at or above 100 km (62 miles)--but does not sustain the speed necessary to fly completely around the planet.
Burt Rutan, the aviation pioneer and head of Scaled Composites, designed and built a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne
. It is a three-person pressurized craft that will rocket into space soon after it is lifted into the upper atmosphere by its carrier aircraft called the White Knight. Mr. Rutan’s company is competing for the X-Prize, an international contest that will award $10 million to the first organization that can launch three people to space and return them safely to Earth. To win the prize a contestant must achieve this feat twice within two weeks.
As stated in the FAA’s press release, the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety. Other criteria include adequate financial responsibility to cover any potential losses and meet strict environmental requirements.
For more information, see the FAA press release below:
WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced it has issued the world’s first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
The license was issued April 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by aviation record-holder
Burt Rutan, for a sequence of sub-orbital flights spanning a one-year period.
The FAA sub-orbital space flight license is required for U.S. contenders in the X-Prize competition, a high-stakes international race ultimately to launch a manned, reusable private vehicle into space and return it safely to Earth. The X-Prize Foundation will award $10 million to the first company or organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), return them safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks.
Twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries have already registered for the X-Prize contest, modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize for which Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris in 1927.
In its 20 years of existence, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has licensed more than 150 commercial launches of unmanned expendable launch vehicles. This license is the first to authorize manned flight on a sub-orbital trajectory.
While the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety, applicants must undergo an extensive pre-application process, demonstrate adequate financial responsibility to cover any potential losses, and meet strict environmental requirements.
For the first time ever, the US Department of Transportation has granted a license to a company that will fly a spacecraft not only up, but back down. Issued on April 1, the Federal Aviation Administration
’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation grants Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, the clearance to conduct a series of sub-orbital flights for a one-year period. Sub-orbital means a space vehicle reaches the edge of space--defined as at or above 100 km (62 miles)--but does not sustain the speed necessary to fly completely around the planet. Burt Rutan
, the aviation pioneer and head of Scaled Composites, designed and built a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne. It is a three-person pressurized craft that will rocket into space soon after it is lifted into the upper atmosphere by its carrier aircraft called the White Knight. Mr. Rutan’s company is competing for the X-Prize, an international contest that will award $10 million to the first organization that can launch three people to space and return them safely to Earth. To win the prize a contestant must achieve this feat twice within two weeks. As stated in the FAA
’s press release, the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety. Other criteria include adequate financial responsibility to cover any potential losses and meet strict environmental requirements. For more information, see the FAA
press release below: WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced it has issued the world’s first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
The license was issued April 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration
’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by aviation record-holder
Burt Rutan, for a sequence of sub-orbital flights spanning a one-year period. The FAA
sub-orbital space flight license is required for U.S. contenders in the X-Prize competition, a high-stakes international race ultimately to launch a manned, reusable private vehicle into space and return it safely to Earth. The X-Prize Foundation will award $10 million to the first company or organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), return them safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks. Twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries have already registered for the X-Prize
contest, modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize for which Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris in 1927. In its 20 years of existence, the FAA
’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has licensed more than 150 commercial launches of unmanned expendable launch vehicles. This license is the first to authorize manned flight on a sub-orbital trajectory. While the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety, applicants must undergo an extensive pre-application process, demonstrate adequate financial responsibility to cover any potential losses, and meet strict environmental requirements.
