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House Science Committee Passes Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004
Mojave, California – February 6, 2004: XCOR Aerospace praised the House Science Committee for its swift mark-up and passage of H.R. 3752, the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, earlier this week.
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The Xerus suborbital vehicle concept by XCOR |
“The Members and staff of the House Science Committee have crafted an excellent piece of legislation that will help foster the new commercial human space flight industry. Several staffers took the time to understand very technical details and subtle regulatory and policy issues, and therefore were able to produce a bill that will make a real difference,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “Ultimate credit goes to the lawmakers who sponsored the legislation; Mr. Rohrabacher, lead sponsor of this bill, and co-sponsors Chairman Boehlert, Mr. Hall, Ranking Member Gordon, and Mr. Lampson."
The bill takes major steps such as:
• Provides a clear and enabling legal and regulatory regime for commercial human spaceflight. This regime will allow for informed consent of the customer to make an informed decision to undergo the risks of spaceflight.
• Creates a new regulatory concept, the “experimental permit” which has many features of the much-lauded experimental aircraft regime and allows for streamlined regulation and conduct of reusable launch vehicle test flights.
• Eliminates uncertain or overlapping jurisdiction between airplanes and space vehicles. Confirms that the FAA's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) has sole authority over suborbital rockets.
• Extends the existing liability indemnification regime for the entire commercial space transportation industry in general, and confirms its application to commercial human spaceflight
The company urges everyone interested in the commercialization of space to write or call their Member of Congress. Ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 3752 and to support the bill when it comes up for vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Note: A copy of the bill can be found at the following URL:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3752
XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket-powered vehicles and propulsion systems that enable affordable access to space.
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