The U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s Federal Aviation\nAdministration (FAA) opened a safety field office in Houston to increase its\noversight of commercial space operations in Texas and New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From this location, FAA inspectors will be able to more\neffectively and efficiently monitor the ongoing testing programs and commercial\nspace tourism operations of SpaceX and Blue Origin in Texas and Virgin Galactic\nin New Mexico, along with others in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKeeping the public safe as the pace of commercial space\noperations increases requires the FAA to adapt, be agile, and remain vigilant,\u201d\nsaid Wayne Monteith, the FAA\u2019s associate administrator of commercial space\ntransportation. \u201cThe Houston field office will help us achieve these important\ngoals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the latest action the FAA is taking to keep pace\nwith the increasing frequency of commercial space launch and reentry\nactivities. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation also is\nincreasing its safety inspection staff, reorganized the office to improve\nefficiency and accountability, and established an Office of Spaceports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FAA also streamlined and modernized its commercial space\nlaunch and reentry licensing regulations to allow the agency to spend more time\non safety oversight and less on paperwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, the FAA activated the Space Data Integrator\ncapability that can track a space launch or reentry vehicle in near-real time\nas it travels through the National Airspace System. This new capability\nincreases safety for all airspace users and assists the FAA in efficiently\nmanaging air traffic during space operations. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2020, the FAA licensed 41 commercial space launches and\nreentries, and safely managed 45 commercial, civil, and Department of Defense\nspace operations into the National Airspace System. For 2021, those numbers could exceed 60 and\n70, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opened a safety field office in Houston to increase its oversight of commercial space operations in Texas and New Mexico. From this location, FAA inspectors will be able to more effectively and efficiently monitor the ongoing testing programs and commercial space tourism operations of SpaceX and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,10,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-new-mexico","category-texas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/space-launch-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18871,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870\/revisions\/18871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}