NASA'S COMMERCIAL CREW TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND THE FAA HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT REGULATIONS: A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

摘要

On December 10, 2010, NASA issued the second version of the technical requirements that will beimposed on private companies that provide orbital crew transportation services to NASA. TheseCommercial Crew Transportation System Requirements for NASA Low Earth Orbit Missions impose amultitude of operational and design requirements that, among other things, extend many existing NASAtechnical requirements to private service providers. The sheer volume of these requirements is daunting -being composed of thousands of pages requirements, guidelines, and best practices on various areas fromcrew health and safety to power systems, wiring, and orbital debris mitigation. This approach to regulatingprivate spaceflight companies stands in stark contrast to the Federal Aviation Administration's HumanSpace Flight Requirements which take a "hands off" approach to regulating private suborbital humanspaceflight by imposing few technical requirements - opting instead to protect private passengers byrequiring companies to fully disclose the risks of spaceflight. This approach has the result of bothpromoting innovation as well as protecting the consumer since spaceflight companies are free to innovatewithout having to comply with complex design and operational requirements, while private passengers areable to make a fully informed decision when taking on the risk of suborbital flight. After first comparingthe different approaches taken in these two sets of regulations, this paper considers (1) whether the moreonerous NASA requirements are necessitated by the different nature of orbital spaceflight related to agovernment program (in contrast to private suborbital spaceflight), (2) the likely effects of the NASArequirements on commercial innovation, and (3) whether NASA (and other space agencies) should adoptanother model of regulation governing the engagement of private orbital service providers.