On June 20, the Federal Register published the FAA’s final rule “Updates to Rulemaking and Waiver Procedures and Expansion of the Equivalent Level of Safety Option.” The agency accepted the two suggestions made by ARSA in comments to the 2016 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).

In general, the rule focuses on 14 CFR 404’s rules for commercial space transportation – reorganizing and clarifying its “regulations and licensing requirements” into “petition and rulemaking procedures.” The agency updated language to reflect “current practice” and expanded the equivalent level of safety options available to commercial space applicants and certificate holders.

ARSA’s NPRM comments focused on minor edits to the general rulemaking procedures in part 11. The association encouraged the FAA to avoid overly specific references to online resources – the evolution of the internet could send CFR readers to broken web addresses – and unnecessarily exhaustive lists of standing committees.

“ARSA believes that regulatory text should be clear, concise and free of explanatory information that is more appropriately included in guidance documents,” ARSA said in its comments. “The association applauds the agency’s attempt to streamline and clarify existing regulations; however, the … revisions [proposed by the agency] fail to achieve that objective.”

In response, the FAA’s final rule simplified an edit including the agency’s website in § 11.63 and left § 11.27 unaltered.

To read the final rule, which becomes effective on Aug. 20, click here.

To read ARSA’s complete comments to the 2016 NPRM, click here.

Previous updates on part 11...

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