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Years in the making, the commercial human spaceflight sector is finally lifting off. Blue Origin has had several successful suborbital flights with paying participants, and Virgin Galactic has scheduled their first operational flight for later this month. SpaceX is flying ambitious, fully private orbital missions as well as delivering NASA and international crew members to and from the International Space Station. Both Boeing and Sierra Nevada are developing their own crewed systems.
As this sector grows, questions and debate – philosophical, political, and practical - about how government policy should promote improved occupant safety are coming to the fore. Should the status quo restriction on regulation of vehicle design, manufacturing, and operation continue? What is the role of industry safety standards, and should the government seek authority to enforce them? Are unrestricted innovation and competition the best path to safety, or should the federal government be granted authority and responsibility for the safety of commercial human spaceflight?
When Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, it recognized that commercial human spaceflight was an experimental and risky activity. However, Congress also required operators to inform customers of their safety records so people could make an informed choice based on levels of risk. And for some number of years, the Secretary of Transportation could only regulate operators in response to a demonstrated problem (in a flight accident or safety incident).
That spaceflight regulatory "
learning period," restricting the FAA from issuing operating requirements and design regulations for human occupant safety, is now scheduled to expire in the fall of this year. Proponents of the learning period maintain that the human spaceflight industry is still too immature, technologies and designs still too iterative, and best practices still in rapid flux to be subject to prospective safety regulations. Others, including the FAA and a recent
RAND report, conclude that, despite a limited body of reference knowledge and nascent industry consensus standards, the time is right to enable unrestricted regulation. Still others believe that this is a false choice, arguing that allowing more regulation will not replace or strengthen the informed consent regime, nor is regulatory authority necessary to take other steps to promote safety.
This Beyond Earth Institute conversation convenes leading experts in space policy, regulation, and law - who have firsthand experience with human spaceflight safety policies and regulations from their work in industry and on Capitol Hill - for a nuanced look at the topic broadly. How should we approach the notion of human spaceflight safety and "risk?" What is, or should be, the appropriate role of a regulator and regulations? How important, if at all, are enforced (as opposed to voluntary) industry safety standards for the future of humans living and working in space? Throughout the discussion, panelists will address the implications of ending the learning period, strengthening or replacing the informed consent regime, and the impacts these and other options may have on the future of commercial human spaceflight.
Moderator: Courtney Stadd, Vice President, Beyond Earth
Speakers:
- Jim Muncy, Principal, PoliSpace
- Caryn Schenewerk, President, CS Consulting
- George Nield, President, Commercial Space Technologies, LLC
- Bruce McClintock, Senior Policy Researcher, RAND
Courtney Stadd (moderator) – Executive Vice President, Beyond Earth Institute
Courtney Stadd is Founder/President, Capitol Alliance Solutions, LLC, a Washington, DC based management consulting firm whose clients include a wide range of pioneering commercial space actors. For nearly 40 years, Stadd’s career path has been a mix of senior government leadership and corporate executive jobs – primarily focused on encouraging the removal of policy and regulatory barriers to the emergence of a competitive American-led commercial space marketplace.
Courtney has held multiple senior positions at the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Transportation, the White House, and worked directly for three NASA Administrators, including as Chief of Staff/White House Liaison. As Senior Director of the White House National Space Council, he helped draft numerous Presidential directives encouraging a competitive commercial space industry, including commercial space guidelines which have governed executive agency use of commercial space products and services for over 30 years.
Jim Muncy - lead industry lobbyist on CSLAA 2004, former professional staff member, House Space Subcommittee
James A. M. Muncy is the founder and principal of PoliSpace, an independent space policy consultancy that helps space entrepreneurs and ‘intrapreneurs’ succeed at the nexus of business, public affairs, and technology. His current clients include several companies and organizations in the emerging commercial launch and human spaceflight industry, ventures offering commercial services to NASA science and spaceflight programs, and firms developing operationally responsive launch capabilities for the U.S. Air Force.
In 2003-4 and again in 2005 Muncy led two successful space industry lobbying campaigns: winning enactment of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-492), and securing an amendment to the Iran Nonproliferation Act so NASA could buy commercial space goods and services which included Russian content.
Muncy has worked for the first two American Spaceflight Participants who purchased trips to the International Space Station. He has also provided policy research and communications services to a number of advanced Air Force military space projects. Muncy regularly participates in, or helps to lead, strategic business planning activities for his commercial clients.
Immediately prior to establishing PoliSpace, Muncy spent over five years working for the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1997 through early 2000 he served on the Professional Staff of the House Science Committee’s Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. In addition to being Chairman Dana Rohrabacher’s staff designee, Muncy held the lead responsibility for issues and programs such as reusable launch vehicles, NASA space flight commercialization, military space technology, export control reform, range modernization, and future NASA programs. Prior to this, Muncy spent over two years on Rep. Rohrabacher’s personal staff as his Legislative Assistant for Space.
Before joining congressional staff in late 1994, Muncy spent nine years as a space policy and marketing consultant for various clients including NASA, NOAA, several private firms, and the not-for-profit space community, while also securing a graduate degree. In the mid-1980’s Muncy worked for two and a half years as a policy assistant to President Ronald Reagan’s Science Advisor, Dr. George Keyworth, in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and served as the White House’s Staff Liaison to the National Commission on Space. While working at OSTP he had the opportunity to contribute substantially to several Presidential addresses on civil and military space policy. Muncy began his career in space policy in 1981 as a staff advisor in the Office of Congressman Newt Gingrich, where he helped Mr. Gingrich co-found the Congressional Space Caucus and developed visionary space policy legislation and outreach initiatives.
A long-time leader in the space advocacy community, Muncy co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation in 1988 and served as its Chairman of the Board for six years, and was reelected to the Board in 2007. Earlier he had served on the Board of Directors of both the National Space Society and the L5 Society. He is a frequent speaker, writer, and media source on space policy issues and civil, military, and commercial space programs. Muncy holds an MS in Space Studies from the Center for Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar.
Caryn Schenewerk - President, CS Consulting (formerly Relativity Space, SpaceX, OMB, House of Reps)
Caryn Schenewerk is a respected leader in navigating the complex regulatory and policy landscape for the spaceflight industry. As the President of CS Consulting, she provides expert guidance to clients on regulatory and policy engagement with all levels and branches of government. Caryn is also honored to share her expertise as an adjunct professor of Space Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Prior to founding CS Consulting, Caryn served as the Vice President for Regulatory and Government Affairs at Relativity Space, where she helped the company launch the world’s first 3-D printed rocket. Caryn started her career in aerospace at SpaceX, where she spent a decade supporting commercial and civil space operations, facility expansion, and economic development as a lawyer and lobbyist. She has an extensive track record of interacting with U.S. government agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, and the U.S. Space Force in support of launch and recovery operations.
Prior to her work in the space industry, she served as the Deputy Associate Director for Legislative Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. Caryn has also worked in various other roles, including Counsel, Policy Director, and Deputy Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill, starting her career in international trade law.
Caryn obtained her bachelor's degree from Austin College in Sherman, TX, and her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. She also earned a Master's in Laws (LLM) from the University of Nottingham in England and is a member of the New York and D.C. Bars.
Dr. George Nield - President, Commercial Space Technologies, LLC (formerly Associate Administrator, FAA-AST)
Dr. George C. Nield is the president of Commercial Space Technologies, LLC, which he founded to encourage, facilitate, and promote commercial space activities. He also serves as the Chairman of the Global Spaceport Alliance. In March of 2022 he flew to space on the fourth human flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.
He had previously been the associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation and was responsible for licensing and regulating all commercial launch activities. Earlier in his career, he held engineering roles at the Air Force Flight Test Center and the Orbital Sciences Corporation, and he was an assistant professor and research director at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Nield also served as the manager of the Flight Integration Office for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.
A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, and an MBA from George Washington University. He is also a Flight Test Engineering graduate of the USAF Test Pilot School. Dr. Nield is a registered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Brig. Gen. (Ret) Bruce McClintock - Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
Bruce McClintock is lead of the RAND Space Enterprise Initiative and a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. The RAND Space Enterprise Initiative is a virtual center that provides a focal point for all RAND space-related research for the U.S. government and U.S. allies. McClintock joined RAND in 2016 after retiring from the Air Force as a brigadier general. In addition to tours as an A-10 pilot and test pilot, he studied at the School for Advanced Airpower Studies, served at the Space Warfare Center at Schriever Air Force Base, was a special assistant to the commander of Air Force Space Command, was the U.S. Defense Attaché to Russia, and served as a White House Fellow.
McClintock's primary research focus at RAND has been space, military doctrine, strategy, and Eurasia security issues and he is currently guiding RAND's efforts to influence the sustainability, safety, and security of space for the new space era. He served as a member a Track-II Dialogue on Strategic Stability with Russia and focused on space operations and norms.
McClintock holds an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Florida, an M.S. in airpower art and science from the School of Advanced Airpower Studies, and a B.S. in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
He is the founder and CEO (Chief Exploration Officer) for Hike for Life, an outdoor education company based in Colorado that nurtures community, inspires responsible exploration and helps preserve the great outdoors.
