NTSB Proposal To Investigate Space Flight Incidents Draws Pushback

The effort was introduced in November in the midst of a year of spaceflight dominated by private industries.

In a letter to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy in January, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson wrote that the FAA “has statutory authority over all aspects of commercial space launch activities,” much like it currently does with traditional aircraft. He went on to encourage the NTSB to reconsider the rule.

During the past 20 years, the NTSB has already led multiple investigations involving space vehicles, including a February 1993 “procedural anomaly” for the Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus launch vehicle. After its investigation, the NTSB provided safety recommendations to the Department of Transportation, NASA, and Orbital Sciences Corporation.

In 2014, the NTSB also led an investigation of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo test flight breakup that ended in the death of one pilot and severe injuries to another.

The NTSB says that it will continue to adhere to terms made in a memorandum of agreement and a memorandum of understanding with the FAA and the U. S. Air Force, respectively.

In November, Reps. Frank D. Lucas, R-Oklahoma, and Brain Babin, R-Texas, wrote a letter to the NTSB saying, “NTSB’s attempts to expand its authority would alter the long-standing commercial space accident investigation process and significantly impact the commercial space launch industry, U.S. economic competitiveness, scientific discovery, space exploration, international cooperation, national security, and safety.”

Currently, the FAA has deemed the commercial space industry as being in a “learning period” that's scheduled to end in 2023. The learning period, as established by Congress, has purposefully reduced regulation on the commercial space industry in an effort to spur technological and economic growth.

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Oregon, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, spoke at a hearing in 2021, after multiple extensions of the “learning period.”

“They won’t be able to regulate for the safety of the flying public, and you know, I have serious concerns that some parts of the industry are talking about yet another extension of the ‘learning period,’” DeFazio said.

Homendy has since downplayed the dissenting concerns, saying that the proposed rule “doesn't mean we’re going to go to every mishap. That doesn’t mean we’re going to investigate everything, just like every other mode of transportation where we have accident investigation authority. Once we get the report in, we evaluate whether we launch [an investigation] or not.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has since responded to the NTSB, saying it “incorrectly characterizes commercial spaceflight as a ‘mode of transportation’ similar to commercial aviation, road, and maritime transportation. In fact, commercial spaceflight remains a nascent industrial sector that is still in development and is appropriately regulated as such.”