The future regulation of suborbital flight in Europe

The EU 7th Framework Project FAST20XX [1] aimed to enlarge the foundations of suborbital high-speed transportation in a wide variety of fields. One of the key issues of this project was to outline a desirable regulatory framework that would best serve the interests of all European stakeholders in this new activity.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a series of requirements for operators of commercial suborbital flights under the 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (CSLAA), enabling the corresponding market to develop. These regulations were initially valid until 2012 but have now been extended until 2015.In Europe, practical and successful attempts to fly experimental vehicles of this kind do not yet exist. However, several developments indicate that it is becoming urgent to pay attention to this potential new industry and find ways to regulate it in a safe yet flexible manner. Although the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) explored the possibility in 2008 to prepare for a certification approach under the concept of “Suborbital Aeroplanes” (SoA), this initiative was put on hold in 2011, and a final decision by the European Commission is still pending.This paper highlights some of the research performed by the authors towards the establishment of a roadmap for future regulation of suborbital flight in Europe. In particular, it will present results of a survey carried out among stakeholders, including operators and manufacturers of vehicles, spaceports, national and European regulators, insurers and brokers, consultants, users and lobbyists. The paper also presents results from the workshop on the future regulatory framework for suborbital flights in Europe, which was co-organised by the present authors and held in Brussels in October 2012.