Statement of Kelvin B. Coleman, Associate Administrator, Commercial Space Transportation FAA Hearing Before The United States Senate Committee on Science, Space & Technology Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics

Risks & Rewards: Encouraging Commercial Space Innovation While Maintaining Public Safety

Chair Lucas, Chair Babin, Ranking Member Lofgren, Ranking Member Sorensen, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the important role the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have in enabling safe commercial space transportation. As the regulator of commercial space transportation, we are committed to ensuring the safety and economic competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry. Maintaining our safety record is a key to the uninterrupted growth of this industry that has become an important economic engine for our nation. A safe industry is a successful industry.

U.S. commercial space capabilities and innovation are vitally important to our Nation. Space exploration has an impact on our everyday lives in countless ways and many benefits are yet to be realized. The commercial space transportation industry continues to develop new technologies that hold tremendous potential for further advancements that will assure our Nation’s access to space, take us back to the moon and to other interplanetary destinations, connect global communities, better serve the planet, and improve the daily lives of our citizens. Commercial space activity worldwide increases every day, resulting in a half-trillion dollar global space economy that will nearly double in the next decade. The United States contributes roughly half of all commercial space activity, and the U.S. commercial space industry will continue to be an extremely important contributor to the growth of this space economy.

I’m here before you today to discuss how our office drives the mission to enable safe space transportation and our ongoing efforts to streamline and improve our regulatory framework and processes.

Overview of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation and its Responsibilities

The Secretary of Transportation (Secretary), in accordance with Title 51 of the United States Code, regulates and oversees U.S. commercial space transportation operations, which include launch and reentry operations worldwide, the operation of launch and reentry sites, and human space flight missions. This authority has been delegated by the Secretary to the FAA, and I have led the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) as the Associate Administrator since September 2022. Our office carries out these authorities to protect public health and safety, the safety of property, and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. In addition to these important responsibilities, our office is also responsible for encouraging, facilitating, and promoting commercial space launches and reentries by the private sector and facilitating the strengthening and expansion of U.S. space transportation infrastructure. To put it simply, the U.S. relies on our office to ensure public safety while enabling safe commercial space transportation, and we recognize and embrace the central role the DOT and the FAA play in ensuring the U.S. continues to be the global leader in space.

Licensing and Permitting of Commercial Space Transportation Operations

Commercial space transportation operations are increasing in complexity, diversity, and frequency, creating a significant growth in demand for AST’s licensing and permitting services and our resulting safety oversight.

Since 1989, the FAA has licensed or permitted more than 800 commercial space transportation operations, more than any other country in the world by far. To put the growth of the U.S. commercial space transportation sector into perspective, this fiscal year, AST has overseen the safety of 130 launch and reentry operations, which is more than triple the number of licensed operations that occurred in fiscal year 2020—and the year isn’t over yet. Additionally, we made 150% more application determinations in fiscal year 2024 as compared to fiscal year 2020. The catalyst for this increase is that we have seen steady growth of licensed vehicle operators and now have 26 licensed commercial launch and reentry operators.

The FAA has leveraged its licensing and regulatory capabilities and other various programs and initiatives in a manner that has resulted in an impressive safety record for this rapidly growing industry. No FAA-licensed launch or reentry operation has ever resulted in a fatality or injury to a member of the public, nor has there been any significant public property damage. I’ve encouraged our team to learn from every operation and to identify potential risks so that potential hazards and vulnerabilities become smaller and fewer. Looking forward, we expect the total number of licensed commercial space operations to double by fiscal year 2026. The FAA is committed to meeting this increased demand.

The safety record is the result of our licensing and permitting process, consisting of three phases: pre-application consultation, application evaluation, and operations and compliance monitoring. Prior to submitting an application, license and permit applicants are required to consult with the FAA to discuss the application process and other information relevant to the FAA’s licensing or permitting determination. Pre-application consultation marks the formal beginning of a relationship between AST and an applicant, and this phase of the licensing and permitting process ends when the applicant formally submits an application that is accepted by AST for evaluation. AST is required by statute to make a licensing determination within 180 days from license application acceptance and a permit determination within 120 days from permit application acceptance. During the application evaluation phase, AST reviews an application for compliance with applicable regulations and determines whether to issue an authorization (i.e., license or permit) to the applicant. The following reviews are conducted as part of an evaluation: a policy review, a payload review, a safety review, a financial responsibility determination, and an environmental review. Further, once AST issues a license or permit, it must ensure that the licensee or permittee complies with the governing statute, regulations, representations made in the application, and the terms and conditions of the license or permit. After a license or permit has been issued, operators frequently make changes to the vehicle configuration, launch procedures, or operations that may require the operator to apply for a license or permit modification. AST must evaluate all such changes in making determinations to approve or deny any modification to a license or permit. An applicant may also request a waiver(s) to regulatory provisions, and AST must evaluate and respond to each waiver petition to determine if it can be granted in the public’s interest and will not jeopardize public health and safety, the safety of property, or any national security or foreign policy interest of the United States. In the event there is a launch- or reentry-related mishap, AST or the National Transportation Safety Board oversees the mishap investigation.

We understand the importance of making timely licensing and permitting determinations and continue to make it our priority— over the last 11 years, we have issued 49 license determinations, averaging 151 days to issue a new license. We have taken action to improve our internal efficiency, which includes bolstering our staffing to handle licensing, permitting, and inspections; improved communication with industry that is clear, concise, specific, and actionable; wider availability through office hours and workshops; and investments in the development of new tools that will improve license application and processing efficiency.

We have also highlighted to industry a number of steps they can take to speed up license and permit determinations. We continue to encourage operators to ensure their licensing applications speak directly to our requirements at the outset, with clear narratives that spell out their safety case—exactly how their methodologies support the means of compliance. Additionally, it is important that operators minimize amendments and go-backs after their application review has started. When operators require significant changes to their applications, it often leads to significant and additional delays, as our experts have to verify and validate the changed data and its effects on other areas of the application. When a quality application is provided by an applicant at the start, a more expeditious approval is possible. The burden of proof of compliance rests with the operator, and with the increased demands placed on our office, we need operators to submit well-reasoned applications that clearly spell out means of compliance to make the most efficient and effective use of our resources.

The FAA’s impressive safety record and ability to meet the needs of this rapidly growing industry are in large part because of the incredible staff that we have in AST. FAA-licensed commercial operations have grown in the last decade by over 900%. Thanks to recent support from Congress, utilizing various hiring and recruiting authorities, we have been able to increase our total staff size to 150 staff members, which allows us to address some of the growing demands that have been placed on our office. The President’s fiscal year 2025 Budget Request continues this support by providing funding for the agency to hire additional staff to conduct authorization evaluations, safety analyses, and safety inspections.

FAA’s Commercial Space Regulatory Framework

AST has embraced a mindset and methods to become better, smarter, more agile, and more efficient—always in ways that won’t compromise safety. In December 2020, the FAA published a final rule to overhaul our launch and reentry regulations and consolidate, update, and streamline all launch and reentry regulations into a single performance-based part, which is found in Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 450 (Part 450). This rule replaced prescriptive public safety requirements with performance-based requirements to provide more flexibility, allow more methods of compliance, and clear the path for innovation. We designed Part 450 to allow a commercial space operator to obtain a license for a portfolio of launch and reentry operations, which allows for different vehicle configurations, mission profiles, and even multiple sites under one license. The rule was developed to reduce the number of times an operator would need to come to the FAA for an approval and reduce the need to process waivers, improve regulatory clarity, and relieve administrative and cost burdens on industry and the FAA. Another benefit of Part 450 is that it enables an operator to streamline and include negotiated timelines for certain reporting requirements, which allows operators to design the reporting component of their program to fit their specific needs within a safe capacity.

Additionally, Part 450 enables coordination between the FAA and our Federal range partners, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense, on ground safety at Federal launch sites to eliminate gaps and duplication in oversight. By March 10, 2026, all launch and reentry licenses issued by the FAA under legacy regulations will no longer be valid, and launch and reentry vehicle operators must be in compliance with Part 450. We are encouraging industry to apply under Part 450 as soon as possible.

Currently, operators with proven launch vehicles and well-established concepts of operations, who could transition the soonest and benefit the most from Part 450, aren’t yet using it for their programs. New operators have begun using Part 450, but not to its fullest extent. As we approach these next 18 months, through various initiatives, AST is working to ensure industry has a full understanding of how to achieve compliance with Part 450 and how to take advantage of its intended benefits. To facilitate industry transition to Part 450, we have provided an assortment of aids, including license application checklists, advisory circulars, as well as virtual tutorials, office hours, and workshops. Part 450 will move us in the right direction toward efficiency and workload reductions for both the government and industry without compromising safety. As we look to the future, we will also continue to consider opportunities to improve the rule to better meet its objectives and identify other aids and resources to facilitate industry transition to Part 450. Additionally, we are also working to utilize advanced tools to adapt to the changing landscape. We are developing a Licensing Electronic Application Portal (LEAP), which will be used to accept, modify, exchange, and approve licensing materials under Part 450. LEAP is expected to enhance our ability to identify, track, and quickly resolve questions and issues both internally and externally with applicants. LEAP will streamline the licensing process for new applicants, provide more transparency into the process, and guide applicants in a step-by-step process.

Conclusion

I once again would like to reiterate the importance of the work we do at the FAA to enable safe space transportation. We have undertaken significant efforts to update our regulations and processes to create more capacity, and we continue to encourage legacy operators to move to the more efficient licensing process established under Part 450, well before they are required to do so. The Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, are here to ensure the U.S. continues to be the global leader in space by leading safely. We know the consequences can be enormous if we get it wrong—consequences for our lives, our planet, industry, and more. That’s why we remain committed to safety as our North Star. We will continue leveraging our licensing and regulatory capabilities, as well as other programs and initiatives, to enable the success of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry and ensure the U.S. remains the preeminent commercial space country of choice. Thank you again for the opportunity to discuss the important role DOT and the FAA play in enabling safe commercial space transportation. This concludes my testimony, and I will be glad to answer any questions from the Committee.

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FAA Drone and AAM Symposium Remarks

FAA Drone and AAM Symposium
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland

Thanks, Jodi (Jodi Baker, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, FAA) for the terrific introduction and a hearty welcome to all of you to Charm City. For those of you who have spent any time in Baltimore, you know, it really is a special place. I send greetings on behalf of Administrator Whitaker. He's sorry he wasn't able to join you but, it really is a privilege and honor for me to be here in his stead. 

I'm excited about this ninth FAA Drone and AAM symposium and I hope all of you are too. The event brings together a broad range of stakeholders to discuss safety and emerging technologies in our National Airspace System. And it promises to connect our communities like never before. This collaborative effort is essential to our collective success. 

When it comes to drones and advanced air mobility, the future is now.  We've been talking about integrating drones into the National Airspace System for more than a decade now. And at times, the pace of progress has been frustratingly slow. But today, I'm happy to say that the full-scale integration of drones is clearly within reach. We're also seeing significant progress in making AAM services to communities of all sizes and all geographic regions a reality. 

This progress is marked by an unflagging commitment to enhancing aviation safety, developing the workforce of the future, ensuring equitable access to aviation services, partnering internationally, and to environmental stewardship. 

The FAA has a long and successful history of safely introducing new technologies into the NAS. Our approach is to ensure maximum flexibility within the existing regulations to integrate drones and AAM into the NAS. We're using our proven safety first, data driven, process oriented and methodical approach to certify new aircraft and new types of operations to ensure that we remain the safest aerospace system in the world. We are evaluating infrastructure, cybersecurity, and data requirements, as well as the effects of noise and other environmental considerations to support both drone and AAM operations. 

It is always an exciting time to be in the aviation sector, but never more so than now. On the drone front, we've already seen how drones can lower the cost of delivery for retail and healthcare. Drones will also drive integrated services such as delivery applications, E-commerce platforms, and parcel carrier services, improving the quality of life for Americans and creating economic growth in communities across the country from rural to urban. 

In the Dallas Fort Worth area, for example, drones are delivering small grocery and pharmacy items in as little as 30 minutes. We'll be hearing more today's session titled “A Nexus in Texas: Delivering Commerce” about these exciting activities. 

Now, the FAA in collaboration with industry is supporting industry in developing validation standards and evaluating the maturation of UAS traffic management or UTM services in a real-world environment. 

This year, the FAA has landmark legislation in the Reauthorization Act that provides us with critical safety and advancements and sets our path for advancing innovative aviation technologies, including prioritization of rulemaking for beyond visual line of sight operations or BVLOS. 

The BVLOS aviation rulemaking committee final report is the catalyst for BVLOS operations, as well as UTM. Many of you recall the initial steps required to fly your drone within visual line of sight. With strong leadership and support from industry, we are now moving rapidly to an era that wasn't possible even just a few years ago. 

For instance, FAA is making great progress on our what we call normalizing UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or our BVLOS rulemaking. This rulemaking aims to ensure that we can normalize operations in the NAS and ensure that all operators big and small, can provide safe and efficient operations and services where traditional air traffic control services are not provided. 

The FAA's goal is to publish this rule before the end of the year or very early next year for notice and comment. The rule if finalized as proposed will provide the UAS industry with the regulatory framework it so urgently needs. We're also pairing this rule with the 2209 Rule which will address operations near critical infrastructure.  So, the two are expected to travel together both for notice and comment and publication later this year or early next year. 

As for Advanced Air Mobility, the future is equally bright. Collaboration again, is key to successfully advancing the exciting prospect of Advanced Air Mobility. Collectively, we must ensure that the new generation of electric, vertical takeoff and landing and other emerging aircraft maintain the high level of safety of today's civil aviation and that all of us are working to make that happen.

We have certification regulations in place that will allow manufacturers to achieve our safety standards in innovative ways. Work continues to finalize with operating framework with standards for pilots to operate aircraft with flying characteristics above helicopters and airplanes. We expect to have that rulemaking finalized by late October or early November. 

Please let me note some additional key milestones along the way. Nearly two years ago, President Biden assigned the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act. The Act directs a whole of government AAM strategy for coordinating activities related to safety, operations, infrastructure, physical security, cybersecurity, and the government’s investment in coordination that is needed to mature the AAM ecosystem. 

The FAA is part of the AAM interagency work group that has been led by the Department of Transportation. We are collaborating with more than 15 federal agencies on an AAM national strategy. For those of you who are involved in some of the early drone integration work, I think you can appreciate that this time around, we're trying to be much better organized across the federal government. The conclusions and recommendations of that interagency workgroup are expected later this year. And you can learn more about the Interagency Working Group at the special breakout session tomorrow morning. 

We've taken a number of additional steps forward over the past year or so. We've issued version 2.0 of the Urban Air Mobility concept of operations, an updated blueprint that offers a framework of operations and anticipated levels of maturity. Last summer, right around the time of this this convening, we proposed a comprehensive rule for training and certifying AAM pilots, which we know as the powered lift proposed SFAR. As I mentioned earlier, we're working to finalize this rule later this fall. This rule is going to be pivotal to providing certainty to pilots and the industry on what the requirements and expectations are to operate these aircraft so that they can take those into consideration as they work to certify their aircraft.  We also expect to provide a type certificate for the first AAM aircraft before the end of 2025. 

To further pave the way, we released an implementation plan detailing the steps that the FAA and others will need to take to safely integrate Advanced Air Mobility in the near term. And we put together a cross functional FAA team which we call Innovate 2028 which aims to establish an operational AAM ecosystem at one or more key sites in the NAS by 2028. This will also support companies striving to begin initial AAM operations before 2028. 

We are creating the foundation to enable this capability through innovation teams, which we call ITeams. I encourage you to attend the session later this afternoon about “Flight: the FAA's Process for Understanding, Planning, and Enabling Operations at Specific Sites.” 

The FAA is also working to integrate AAM operations into the NAS beyond 2028 at scale. We are researching AAM concepts and considering possible further rulemaking for scheduled and on demand operations that may have a remote pilot or operate autonomously in certain conditions. 

In all our work, whether it's drone and AAM integration or other new entrance into the airspace we will continue to engage representatives from federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government stakeholders, partners from foreign authorities and other industries, and the greater aviation community. You will notice that many sessions include these stakeholders, and we look forward to continuing to interact with them. Always. Please join our team later today for the session on “State, Local, Tribal, Governmental Challenges and Opportunities.” And tomorrow, consider attending the session titled "Won't you be my neighbor? Community Engagement for New Entrants". All of these efforts will evolve as technologies mature, as we better understand the operational characteristics of these new aircraft, and as we establish flexible standards and rules that assure safety. 

While the US wants to remain a global leader in all things aviation, we also want and need to continue to engage and be strong partners with other countries. Our country ushered in the jet age, and we will do the same for drone and AAM in the world's most complex airspace. But we need and welcome the support of our global partners. These partnerships are essential to enhancing aviation safety, realizing the global economic benefits of these technologies, and taking advantage of these technologies to better serve communities around the nation. 

Our continued engagement with international partners, which I've witnessed firsthand in meetings with Asian aviation authorities, and European aviation authorities earlier this year, and of course, our engagement with other countries and international organizations, remains the key to our success. Our collaborative international venues such as the Amsterdam Drone Week, the Singapore Air Show in the Dubai Air Show helped to advance mutual understanding, relationships, and dialogue, and identify viable solutions, all of which are critical to realizing a new paradigm in aviation. 

While I was in Europe, I had the chance to highlight FAA's work to form a new ICAO AAM study group led by a talented member of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. This group is identifying the many facets of these new aviation technologies that the relevant ICAO technical panels must address to ultimately develop standards and recommended practices for AAM in the future.

We also continue to engage regularly with the heads of aviation regulatory authorities of Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand as part of the National Aviation Authority network. This network’s goal is to promote cooperation on an array of emerging aviation challenges. To hear more about FAA's global engagements, I hope that you will attend tomorrow's lunch plenary session.  It will focus on global collaboration in drone and Advanced Air Mobility innovation. We look forward to continuing international collaboration on future technologies and operational implementation to unlock the benefits of innovation.

In addition to all this, the FAA continues to take its environmental and sustainability obligations seriously. We will also be a global leader when it comes to sustainability. While there are numerous environmental and energy benefits to drones and AAM, we also need to evaluate potential adverse impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act. We can do this in a smart, efficient, and effective way. And the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 directs us to do just that. It requires the FAA to examine and integrate programmatic level approaches to the requirements of NEPA for aviation projects. Even prior to Congress's passage of the reauthorization, the FAA began to examine and implement programmatic approaches to NEPA compliance for drone related actions. Just earlier this month, we completed a programmatic NEPA review for drone package delivery in North Carolina, in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. 

I'll close with this thought. Like many of you, I have been keenly watching the action from the Paris Olympics and cheering on our inspiring American athletes. Seeing these Olympics reminded me that back in 1984, for those of you who watched those Olympics in LA, at the opening ceremonies, they began with the man flying with a jet pack from the roof of the Coliseum to the track below. Yes, this showcased the genius of American inventiveness. Yet jet packs were and still are an expensive novelty, not a common means of air transport. 

In another four years, we will hold another Olympics in Los Angeles. I hope that in these games rather than being a promising concept, drones will be in widespread use, as well electric taxis to transport athletes, officials and spectators safely from venue to venue. This is the future that we are proud to help create. I can't wait to see what more we can do together. I thank you so much for your kind attention today and for the for all that you are all doing to bring this exciting future to fruition. I hope you enjoy the rest of your conference. Thanks so much for your time.