FAA May Start Charging Rocket Companies for Launching
The FAA needs to approve commercial launch and re-entry operations, and that means checking over the companies that apply for it. That endeavour has grown more costly over the years, and with the number of launch requests seeing explosive growth, the FAA's $42 million for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation is seen as far from enough for it to continue to function effectively.
With the Trump administration's general distaste for budget increases outside of the military, it has proposed cutting a number of NASA and FAA initiatives and fixing governmental funding—effectively making its 2026 budget a real-world budget decrease due to inflation. As Ars Technica points out, this could leave the FAA struggling to meet its demands in the years to come.
The proposal to alleviate this problem is to allow the FAA to start charging launch vehicle operators for sharing the skies with commercial aircraft. It would be a fee for each pound of payload mass the rockets were launching, starting with 25 cents per pound in 2026, and rising to $1.50 per pound by 2033. At that point, the fee would rise with inflation, allowing the FAA to seemingly keep pace with future launch cadences.
SpaceX has repeatedly complained of delays in the FAA's licensing process. Credit: SpaceX
However, to prevent this from stifling innovation of particularly large rockets, the fees would reportedly be capped at $30,000 per launch starting next year, rising to a $200,000 cap in 2033. Considering most rocket launches cost in the millions, if not tens or hundreds of millions, that kind of fee should be a drop in the bucket for most launch vehicle operators while still providing a much-needed form of revenue generation for the agency licensing them.
"Nearly every user of the National Airspace System pays something back into the system to help cover their operational costs, yet under current law, space launch companies do not, and there is no mechanism for them to pay even if they wish to," senator and sponsor of the measure, Ted Cruz said in a statement. "As commercial spaceflight expands rapidly, so does its impact on the FAA's ability to operate the National Airspace System. This proposal accounts for that."
The bill is still in the early stages, and it's still possible the Trump administration weighs in and tips the scales one way or another. However, as Ars points out, the Trump administration's nominee for the next FAA administrator has backed the proposal, suggesting it may make it through to real legislation.
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Boston Globe
25 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
When Trump meets Putin, anything could happen
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The Hill
25 minutes ago
- The Hill
Asian shares charge higher after US stocks rally to records on hopes for interest rate cuts
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27 minutes ago
Asian shares charge higher after US stocks rally
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