SAFETY STANDARDS TO BE DESIGNED FOR LAUNCH INDUSTRY.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

MOJAVE - Commercial spaceflight firms announced they are forming a federation to design and uphold standards to protect safety for the fledgling private manned space launch industry.

Industry leaders decided to form the federation during a gathering in El Segundo on Jan. 18, but delayed the announcement until this month, as Congress begins hearings to consider commercial space issues.

The federation's initial efforts will focus on establishing standards and procedures in vehicle safety, medical requirements and training for passengers and crew.

Membership in the proposed federation is open to U.S. nonprofit and commercial entities developing suborbital commercial passenger travel.

``No one else has better information than this group so the government does not develop them (regulations) in a vacuum,'' said Dianne Murphy, spokeswoman for the X Prize Foundation, one of the organizations involved in the federation. ``It's a good opportunity for everybody to come in at the right time.''

Among those working to form the federation are Burt Rutan, whose Scaled Composites company designed and built the first, and thus far only, privately funded manned spaceship; Stuart Witt, the general manager of the Mojave Airport, which is a licensed by the federal government as a spaceport; and Jeff Greason, president of XCOR, a Mojave company that has plans for its own manned spacecraft.

Other entrepreneurs working to create the federation include Alex Tai of Virgin Galactic; John Carmack, Armadillo Aerospace; Elon Musk, SpaceX; Peter Diamandis, X PRIZE Foundation; Gary Hudson, HMX; George French, Pioneer Rocketplane; Eric Anderson, Space Adventures; and Michael S. Kelly, chairman of RLV Working Group of COMSTAC, the federal Department of Transportation's industry advisory committee.

At this point, federal law and regulations for commercial manned spaceflight are fairly open-ended. In December, Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 that requires the Federal Aviation Administration to regulate the industry, but for the next eight years that regulation is primarily focused on protecting people not involved with the flight.

In 2013, the FAA can regulate such spacecraft, but only those involved in fatal accidents.

The new federal rules require launch companies to provide customers and crew with a disclaimer warning that the federal government has not certified the safety of the vehicle.

Under the provisions of the law, the FAA is working to develop rules for the issuance of experimental permits for launch vehicles and on the rules for medical and training issues for prospective passengers.

House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., one of the proponents of the new space launch law, said he initially thought the idea of commercial human spaceflight was ``a silly distraction'' until Mojave's SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize by flying two manned sub-orbital flights in less than two weeks.

``We don't know yet what commercial spaceflight might lead to, but we need to give this new industry a chance to develop,'' Boehlert said during a Feb. 9 congressional hearing. ``This is an infant industry; it is not the equivalent of today's airline industry. The law fully protects uninvolved third parties and requires extraordinary disclosures to immediate participants, and it sets the industry on a path toward greater regulation as it develops.''

There have been three private manned spaceflights, all by SpaceShipOne, a spacecraft designed by Mojave's Burt Rutan and financially backed by billionaire Paul G. Allen. Rutan is working on a fleet of spaceships for Virgin Galactic, a space-tourism venture by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Atlantic airline.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said Branson is investing $100 million for the development and construction of five spaceships. The company plans to start space tourism flights in 2008, initially operating out of Mojave.

The company is looking to develop a second site in another location that could possibly be either Florida, Texas or New Mexico, Whitehorn said.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com