Hearing on FAA and Commercial Space
Commercial Space: Industry Developments and FAA Challenges, GAO
“GAO reported in 2015 that FAA’s budget requests for its commercial space launch activities generally were based on the number of projected launches, but that in recent years the actual number of launches was much lower than FAA’s projections. GAO also reported that, according to FAA officials, more detailed information was not provided in FAA’s budget submissions because the agency lacked information on its workload overseeing commercial space launch activities. In addition, GAO reported that the Office of Commercial Space Transportation did not track the amount of time spent on various activities.”
Statements by: Taber MacCallum, George Nield, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Michael Gold, Rep. LoBiondo
The GAO is totally off base this time. It is inappropriate to expect the FAA to predict how much commercial spaceflight there would be years in the future and spend money in direct proportion to the number of launches. It is a whole new field of commerce and the FAA plays a critical role in making it possible as a way to generate taxes instead of just spending tax dollars. I’ve heard a number of FAA OCST people speak and I think they are doing a professional and effective job.
Agreed. No one can make those kinds of projections with certainty in any recently disrupted industry. There might be some potential in the fact that launch contracts seem to run two or three years ahead of launches, but the actual planned schedules for those launches cannot be relied upon so far in advance. Also, that lead time might change as well.
The past certainly does not reflect the future…or even the present. GAO should recommend the amount that the FAA has requested because no one else is close enough to their documents to challenge their numbers.
“No one can make those kinds of projections”
Oh, please, Bill. Every armchair quarterback inhabiting this blog makes predictions all the time!
Everyone makes projections. No one makes accurate projections. In this case we are trying to create a new industry. The FAA needs are based on creating a whole new regulatory structure, not on routine processing of standard forms from regular customers.
Ya, but no one listens to us. 😉
Also, I don’t know about you, but I have no skin in the game. So talk is cheap.
The FAA has to fund it’s organization and balance head-count against work load. The GAO might not be as much into good predictions of disrupted industries as it aught to be.
Same here- I simply have a lifelong love of spacey stuff and an appreciation for those making it possible from techs to engineers to scientists to pilots. All of them, including those at NASA trying to do a good job.
My only involvement is a hefty tax bill every quarter, and occasional visits to conferences 🙂
I suppose there’s a certain base number needed to support the infrastructure and overhead, and then an incremental cost in adding employees, or removing them, as the rate fluctuates.
In my small corner of the world here ins SW Florida, we saw the the county planning department and the building department cut employees dramatically as the economy shrank post 2008; they are now hiring like mad. Why isn’t the FAA similar?
It is also worth pointing out that the diversity and complexity of commercial space operations the DoT is dealing with has expanded tremendously. Twelve years ago it was mostly just elv launches from two government ranges. Now it is rlv’s, flybacks and landings, reentry capsules, with commercial beyond earth orbit missions and in space servicing very much on their plate.