The FAA announced today that it has formally released regulations governing experimental permits for suborbital RLVs. Congress gave the FAA authority to grant such permits (analagous to experimental airworthiness certificates in aviation) in the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. These regulations formally codify how such permits will be issued, although FAA has already issued permits to both Armadillo Aerospace and Blue Origin prior to the release of these regulations. I have not had an opportunity yet to review the final regulations; the FAA did release a fact sheet about commercial human spaceflight in general today, along with a press release, which I have included below:

To facilitate research, development and testing of new design concepts for commercial vehicles intended to carry people into space, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today issued regulations governing the issuance of experimental permits for the launching of reusable suborbital rockets.

“These rules represent another step forward for commercial human space flight,” said FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey. “To help move this exciting industry from concept to reality, our goal is to streamline and facilitate the licensing process for flight testing under the experimental permit while maintaining public safety.”

A critical component of any reusable launch vehicle development program is flight testing. To help facilitate those tests, the allowable processing time for issuing a permit determination is 120 days compared to 180 days for a license.

A single experimental permit will cover multiple vehicles of a particular design and allow an unlimited number of launches. The FAA will identify the type of design changes that may be made without invalidating the permit. The one-year permit is renewable following an FAA review. None of the test flights covered by an experimental permit can carry passengers for compensation or for hire.

The new rules establish criteria for the physical area in which a vehicle with an experimental permit can operate. The area, among other things, must be large enough to contain planned trajectories. It cannot contain or be adjacent to a densely populated area.

As part of the application for a permit, a vehicle developer will need to provide a program description, a flight test plan, and operational safety documentation, including a hazard analysis and a plan for response to a mishap.

The new rules were mandated by the Congress in the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. Final regulations for crew and space flight participants were issued in December of 2006.

According to this morning’s Las Cruces Sun-News, the spaceport tax referendum in Doña Ana County, New Mexico officially has a 265-vote lead with 108 ballots to be reviewed. The “yes” lead initially was somewhat slimmer than earlier reported—173 instead of 204 votes—but the lead grew as the provisional ballots were reviewed and added to the tally yesterday. The results have to be officially certified, which will take place on Tuesday; barring a challenge (which didn’t appear to be in the works), the tax would officially go into effect the first of next year.

Proponents were, naturally, gratified with the outcome. “I’m proud to be a citizen of this county today,” county commissioner Bill McCamley, one of the leading supporters, told the Sun-News. In a press release (not yet posted on its web site), National Space Society executive director George Whitesides (himself a customer of spaceport tenant Virgin Galactic), noted that this “is the first time that the new industry of personal spaceflight has come before a popular vote - and the referendum’s passage is an endorsement of the industry’s economic potential.”

Opponents of the tax appeared resigned to defeat, but consoled themselves that they had put up a hard flight despite a lack of money. “I compliment the proponents, but you know, they spent a lot of money compared to our campaign, which was grassroots,” Oscar Vásquez-Butler, a county commissioner opposed to the tax, said. Opponents of the tax claimed to have spent only about $1,000, while supporters reportedly spent up to 100 times as much.