Thanks Carol [Hallett], and good afternoon everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here to talk about one of my favorite subjects—space. 

Of course I’m not alone in that...Few topics capture the American imagination more than space travel. It’s been that way since the first works of science fiction centuries ago. 

It really kicked into high gear with NASA’s Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, and most recently with NASA’s planetary work. 

You might say I’m a super-fan when it comes to the Mars Perseverance mission, and even more so, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter....17 flights to date, with more in the works. Amazing....

And “amazing” is the only way to describe the tempo and creativity of commercial space missions this year. We saw the first nonagenarian—who also happened to be Captain Kirk—go into space in October. A few months earlier, an 18 year-old became the youngest person ever to go. 

Just last weekend, Blue Origin flew a full complement of six civilian participants into space on the New Shepard, a rocket named after the first American to go there—Alan Shepard. One of those human spaceflight participants was Shepard’s eldest daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley. 

The pace of launches is just as stellar as the participants. Year-over-year, the commercial space industry keeps shattering records. And here’s the best part, to date, we’ve had a 100% success record for keeping the public safe throughout all of that commercial space activity. 

That might lead the public to assume that—unlike the old saying—space is easy. Well, the old saying is right – Space is hard. It only looks easy from the outside because there is an army of industry and government professionals on the inside who are constantly working to make sure it’s safe. 

That includes the FAA. Our role is to protect the public during launches and reentries, and to make access to space as easy as possible for operators. We do this while holding true to our safety and sustainability mandates. 

We protect the public by licensing U.S. operators and monitoring their activities everywhere in the world to make sure they follow the rules. We also issue safety approvals for launch and reentry vehicles, various safety systems, and the people performing the licensed activities.

The FAA eases access to space by creating performance-based and streamlined regulations, and working with other government agencies and international partners to deliver unified approaches to oversight. We also streamline launches and reentries by more effectively separating space vehicles from aircraft using our Space Data Integrator system. 

An unwavering commitment to safety is the key to making something very hard appear to be easy. Consider the commercial airline industry. We’ve made it look incredibly easy because we can get on a plane and fly to pretty much anywhere in the world without having to worry about our safety. 

It certainly wasn’t always that way.... But thanks to the hard work of safety advocates in government, industry and academia over the past few decades, we now have a commercial airline industry that is the envy of the world when it comes to safety. 

We got there by investing in safety management, data, and modern analysis methods. These are the tools the FAA and industry use routinely to evaluate anything new, and potentially dangerous, to the aviation system. 

The commercial space industry is still relatively new compared to aviation, but with these same tools, we have a head start to build a solid foundation for safety. Working together, we can position this industry for safe and sustainable growth in the final frontier for eons to come.  

Thanks.