SS1 has launched a new era in civil aviation that could lead to civil spaceflight.
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Posted on 04/28/2005 1:22:38 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
Red Tape For SpaceShipTwo
SS1 has launched a new era in civil aviation that could lead to civil spaceflight.
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What did raise eyebrows during the congressional hearing on commercial space -- which is where Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic's president, dropped his news -- is why the firm is backing away from a debut flight in 2007. It turns out the first roadblock is signing the papers to have Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aircraft-design and construction firm in Mojave, Calif., begin work.
Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways in London, last year announced plans to license the technology that Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen developed to create the world's first private manned spaceship.
The experimental vessel, called SpaceShipOne, flew three suborbital flights during 2004 with a company pilot aboard, picking up in the process the $10-million Ansari X Prize for the first commercial spaceflight, plus dozens of other accolades, including the Collier Trophy, the country's most prestige award in the field of aviation.
The problem is U.S. export controls issues -- particularly those that involve the sale or license of technology that could have military applications -- have delayed Virgin Galactic's ability to place a formal order for the spaceships, Whitehorn told members of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
"At this point, due to uncertainty about possible licensing requirements, we are not able to even view Scaled Composites' designs for the commercial space vehicle," Whitehorn said. "After U.S. government technology-transfer issues are clarified and addressed if deemed necessary, we hope to place a firm order for the spacecraft."
The difficulties with export controls have emerged despite the fact that British-owned Virgin Galactic plans to operate its commercial spaceflight services initially in the United States.
"I thought Britain was a relatively friendly nation," Rutan told committee members, adding the export-control issues also are affecting the financing for the project.
"We have had to move away from the basic concept of this being a foreign-funded development," he said.
The issue affects far more than Rutan's ability to sign a contract with Virgin. Other firms, including a group in Dubai, have expressed interest in buying spaceships, he said.
"We have wrestled with this problem in terms of technology transfer to Virgin Atlantic for about five months now, and it has been difficult," he explained, adding that he has been discouraging foreign sales until a routine personal-spaceflight industry is established in the United States.
Despite a price tag of $200,000, about 100 people have signed contracts for rides on Virgin Galactic's spaceliner and agreed to pay the money upfront, while another 29,000 or so aspiring astronauts have agreed to put down deposits of $20,000 each.
Rutan intends to pack as much luxury and amenities as possible aboard the ships, which will carry somewhere between five and nine passengers. He wants participants to have their own windows to enjoy the view, as well as the ability to float during the 4 minutes or 5 minutes of weightlessness planned for each suborbital excursion.
If the technology can be developed to make suborbital spaceflight as safe as commercial aviation in its early days, then the market for space tourism will be enormous, Rutan said.
He predicted up to 500 passengers will fly during the first year of commercial spaceflight service and 3,000 people will fly by the fifth year of operation.
"By the 12th year, 50,000 to 100,000 astronauts will have enjoyed that black sky view," Rutan said. For that kind of breakthrough, however, spaceflight will have to become 100 times safer than it is today, he added.
The most important step the United States could take to clear the road for private firms to build passenger spaceships is to change its licensing and regulatory oversight, he continued.
With the SpaceShipOne flights behind him and the challenge of building, testing and flying commercial space vessels ahead, Rutan did not mince words when speaking of the difficulties he encountered dealing with the branch of the Federal Aviation Administration assigned to oversee commercial space issues.
"The process ... just about ruined my program," he said, referring his experiences with the office of the FAA's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, which bases its requirements on assessing and minimizing risk to the non-involved public.
"It resulted in cost overruns, increased the risk for my test pilots, did not reduce the risk to the non-involved public, destroyed our 'always question, never defend' safety policy, and removed our opportunities to seek new innovative safety solutions," Rutan said.
Because the agency's policies stemmed from its oversight of unmanned-rocket launches and an emphasis on assessing the likelihood and affect of launch failures, the process is ill-suited to reducing the probability of failure in passenger ships, which is how airline regulations are based, he said.
"The regulatory process was grossly misapplied for our research tests and, worse yet, is likely to be misapplied for the regulation of the future commercial spaceliners," Rutan said.
He noted ensuring public safety can be built into the process so it minimizes vehicle development costs.
"This is a subject that FAA seems to be afraid of, Rutan said. "They seem to be happy that they're not required ... to certify these ships. I think it really comes down to the problem that they flat don't have the people that are qualified to do it."
Space Race 2 is a weekly series by UPI exploring the people, passions and business of suborbital manned spaceflight, written by long-time aerospace journalist Irene Klotz.
All rights reserved. © 2005 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.
That is why.
More bureaucratic bumbling and red tape getting in the way. It wouldn't surprise me if the feds managed to put a stop to the whole thing.
Might seem that way, but what they are interested in is third party transfers. If you've been to Britain lately, the demography validates this possibility.
Complying with the ITARs is not that difficult. Virtually all U.S. aerospace companies do business with a variety of foreign companies - in France, Russia, Japan, the world. And they do it with a license issued by the Dept. of State.
Just gotta comply.
Branson and Rutan ought to talk with TransOrbital - they were the first private space company to get ITAR approval. They launched a dummy testbed of their TrailBlazer spacecraft on a converted Russian ICBM.
"If it weren't for fu*$*%g NASA
We'd at least have gone to Mars
And if I can't reach orbit
Then I'll never reach the stars."
If the license is for the UK, the technology stays in the UK. Its not for the entire EU. Believe me, the UK gets much more sensitive military data.
There is currently a headed debate in th community about this. The Chinese already have a back door into the EU defense community. The latest pull back on the China arms deal, pushed in great part by British firms like BAE is a witness to the kinds of pressures being brought to bear here. The f-35 may in fact get canceled because of it, THe parceling out of sensitive work to our "allies" is certainly under review.
There is a great deal of axienty about the ongoing trustworthiness of the Labor Party in the DoD community.
Inwould not get too teary-eed about Tony Blair, if I were you: he is a Europe Socialist at haert and is selling out the UK to the Continentals. If he will do that to his own countrymen, what is he will to do to us. If you really believe that France will stick to legal niceties once the Britain is further "integrated" with the EU, then you are dead wrong. In fact they will not even be bond by legal restrictions: Brussels will set defense and foreign policy, not London.
NASA isn't even mentioned in the article. Export control licenses are handled by the State Dept.
Before the license will be granted Rutan will have to demonstrate that the controlled info will remain controlled at the receiving end.
Pigs will fly first.
How about that pesky private property rights in outer space issue? Any progress there? The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty?
Anything?
Hello?
Is this thing on?
Since the subject hasn't come up in the halls of Congress, we ought to assume that silence means nothing is being done to facilitate space travel.
Except for the new regulations, of course. For your safety.
Rutan's sub-orbital civilian spacecraft are already flying higher and faster than the most advanced military fighters in the world.
Rutan has a government contract for an unspecified, possibly orbital version, too. Moreover, the rest of the world isn't standing still. Competing orbital and sub-orbital spacecraft will eventually hit production. Rutan won't have a monopoly forever.
...And it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there are going to be military possibilities for these types of spacecraft.
If you want control of the High Ground, after all, you've got to have a way to get to the High Ground in the first place.
The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (less romantically known as H.R. 5382) ultimately allows average Americans to hitch a ride on a civilian space craft at their own risk. The federal ban on such citizen travel was repealed by HR 5382 in 2004. The President signed that bill into law two days before Christmas.
Actually, no they don't. NASA only controls NASA facilities, and they don't tell the FAA how to do their job. Kinda like homeland security prior to 9/11 with the CIA, FBI, and NSA working very separately.
has the faa 'certified' the shuttle?
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