What do you get when three of the leading human spaceflight companies in the U.S. complain to lawmakers that agencies like the FAA and the Fish & Wildlife agencies are dragging their feet and causing long delays in rocket launches? The answer is a whole lot of nothing.
SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic “told Congress this week that the industry needs time to mature before federal regulators introduce new safety guidelines for human spaceflight — but that existing regulatory processes for launch are in dire need of improvement.”
I’ve said it before that the FAA needs to speed up its review of SpaceX’s previous failed Starship launch in order for the company to launch its next improved version. Obviously SpaceX doesn’t set out to fail, but they do learn from their mistakes faster than any other company in the space launch industry.
Congress needs to reign in the FAA, and convince them to speed things up before these companies decide to pack up and move operations to a more friendly country who will allow them to iterate and innovate faster.
Three leading space companies agree: No new regulations on human spaceflight