The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed three changes to commercial space launch and reentry licensing, alongside a final rule making technical corrections to existing regulations. The actions, announced by US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, address flight-abort requirements and casualty-risk assessments for random reentry. The FAA also plans a broader licensing-framework overhaul in 2027 and is expanding its commercial space office.
The proposals would clarify when an abort is not required and allow operators to switch abort capability on or off during flight; define thresholds for mandatory aborts; and let operators account for vehicle breakup when assessing the risk of high-consequence casualty events during random reentry. The FAA has not provided publication dates or comment deadlines for the proposals.
The planned overhaul is intended to accommodate a projected 1,000 launches annually by 2030. The agency is also recruiting an Associate Administrator and aerospace engineers for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Applications for the hiring initiative are due 4 December 2026.
The actions follow five proposed rules issued the previous month and work by the Department of Transportation’s SPACE Task Force. The FAA is separately seeking public and industry input on potential spaceport locations and priority airspace for launch routes. The department cites 217 US commercial launches out of 329 worldwide in 2025 and projects 10,000 FAA-licensed launches and reentries annually by 2035; these future figures are projections.