To enable the new industry of space tourism to become established anywhere in the world, it is necessary for considerable interplay to take place between the potential operators and the relevant governmental entities, at national and regional levels. Spaceport Associates has been making contributions towards creating workable regulatory procedures in the following ways:

• Space tourism development regulations
• Space tourism operation regulations
• Spaceport regulations
• International space law framework
• Emerging new areas of regulation, including training and medical standards

The President’s Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The DC Director provided testimony on the market size and flight rates to be expected via the development of a US space tourism industry.

America’s Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs. The DC Director served as a formal Reviewer for the draft of this report, issued by the National Research Council in 2009, and which made a major contribution in the national debate of the direction to be followed by NASA and the space program in general under the new administration of President Obama.

Through active membership of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLVWG) and Space Transportation Operations (STOWG) Working Groups of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (FAA-AST COMSTAC Committee), and via use of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) process, the DC Director has drafted Regulatory text to simplify the operation of the new commercial spaceports, and the space tourism industry, while ensuring the safety of the uninvolved general public. Provided language which was incorporated to improve the Experimental Permit Regulations, and addressed the needs of the Future Air Traffic control system to handle the requirements of the space tourism sector, via submitting changes to the CONOPS of the Next Generation Air Transportation System NEXTGEN. Contributed regulatory text to define the training requirements for crews and passengers for space tourism operations.

As a member of the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) forum, the DC Director assisted in providing an open dialog between NASA, industry and academia, including providing a chapter on spaceport design for the ATWG book Beyond Earth – the Future of Humans in Space, published by Apogee Books in 2006.

As the former Managing Director of the satellite services company Tachyon Europe, the DC Director obtained service licenses, via negotiations with regulatory officials in over twenty countries in Europe.

The DC Director is a joint author of the book “Space Law: Legal Contours”, edited by P.S.V. Kumar, Amicus Books, 2009.

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