Many are surprised to learn that the Aeronautical Center provides office space for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST).  Their local presence is already paying dividends through a new partnership between the AST and the FAA Academy (AMA).  Commercial space operation is a growing industry.  Consequently, safely integrating commercial space transportation into the National Airspace System (NAS) is a FAA strategic objective, in which the AST and AMA partnership directly supports.  The Academy is developing a “License2Launch” 20-hour training course.  The AST Office is making the course available to the commercial space industry as well as local, state, and international government entities.  License2Launch plans to cover topics to facilitate better understanding of FAA’s role in commercial space activities and help promote industry growth. Course topics include: AST overview, the history of spaceflight, commercial vs. government spaceflight, AST’s regulatory oversight role, license and permit hurdles and mitigation strategies, global commercial space activities, commercial spaceflight economic impact and future, and introduction to spaceflight human factors. 

There are nine FAA licensed commercial spaceports within the NAS and several more are being proposed in four states.  Greg Rasnake, AST Deputy Director of Strategic Operations stated, “Our partnership with the Academy leverages the Academy’s unique experience and outstanding capabilities in aerospace education to provide much needed coursework to reach the commercial space industry and stakeholders.”

Development efforts will be completed and a pilot course will be ready to “launch” by December 2015.  Regarding the partnership Sherry Reese, Academy Director, explains “The Academy is excited about the new partnership with Commercial Space. This project is a great example of collaboration across organizations in the FAA. We are pleased to be a part of the growing commercial space industry and look forward to doing more together.”