By Aazam
October 18, 2022
Companies operating on commercial space stations say they need clarity from the federal government on who will regulate them and how
Representatives from several companies working on commercial space stations said they would have to deal with an "alphabet soup" of agencies
"We need to understand these things now," said Mike Gold, executive vice president of civil space and external affairs at RedWire Space
So that we don't have problematic issues that slow down engineering and scientific and commercial progress in the future
"We need predictability, we need clarity and we need certainty in terms of regulatory structure
Asked what regulatory changes are needed to enable Axiom's commercial space station and others
Gould said mission authorization includes figuring out how to carry out the "continuous supervision" required by Article 6
He called for a "self-certification" approach to this. We are in the driver's seat and understand technology more than anyone
It is therefore very important that, from a regulatory standpoint, the private sector should be on the front lines of passing that information to the government
George Neal, a former associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, suggested keeping it within the Department of Transportation
Gould said the ISS has exceptions to the export control rules and preferences that commercial space stations would require