OXFORD, Miss. – The Federal Aviation Administration has launched a rule-making committee to develop regulations for human safety in spaceflight with industry representatives from across the U.S., including the University of Mississippi‘s Michelle Hanlon.
Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law, is among 25 members on the committee, which has the objective to examine potential regulations needed to govern human safety during spaceflight.
The Human Space Flight Occupant Safety Aerospace Rulemaking Committee hopes to submit its proposed regulations to the FAA in Summer 2024.
The FAA launched the committee on July 27 in response to the upcoming expiration of a moratorium on spaceflight regulations that the U.S. Congress put into place in 2004. The moratorium will expire Oct. 1 if Congress does not extend the deadline - as it did in 2012.
When the moratorium is lifted, FAA will need regulations governing how companies will ensure that spaceflight is safe for human occupants, Hanlon said.
Some transportation regulations have centuries of precedent, but governing the infancy of spaceflight, safety will present a unique challenge to the committee, Hanlon said.
Hanlon also is serving on a second FAA committee, which first met earlier this summer. It's aimed at examining liability and waivers surrounding spaceflight. (UM 08/07/23)
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