WASHINGTON — A defense authorization bill includes language to extend a “learning period” limiting commercial human spaceflight regulations as well as indemnification for commercial launches.
House and Senate conferees released Dec. 7 the text of the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025 after negotiations to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
One section in the 1,813-page bill extends two existing provisions regarding commercial space transportation. One is the so-called “learning period” that limits the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration to enact safety regulations for occupants of commercial human spacecraft. That restriction, set to expire on Jan. 1, would be extended through the end of 2027 in the NDAA.
Another extension involves launch indemnification. Federal law requires launch licensees to demonstrate financial responsibility, typically through insurance, for third-party damages up to a maximum probable loss amount determined by the FAA. Should any damages occur above that amount, the government would pay those additional claims up to a much higher level.
That indemnification, which was set to expire at the end of September 2025, is extended through September 2028 in the NDAA. The Senate version of the bill in September included both the learning period and indemnification extensions.
The extension of the learning period in particular was a priority for the commercial space industry, given its impending expiration. Originally enacted in 2004 and set to last eight years, it has been extended repeatedly, for durations ranging from months to several years, as the industry argued that it not built up enough experience yet to develop best practices that could inform regulations.
The learning period was extended most recently in May, when an FAA reauthorization bill extended the period, set to expire that month, through the end of the year.
The three-year extension is a consolation prize for the industry, which had been seeking a longer extension. The House Science Committee approved a commercial space bill last November that would extend the learning period to October 2031 while a Senate bill introduced in March would provide a five-year extension. Neither bill, though, advanced further.
Getting some kind of extension passed, though, was a priority, even it was not the long-term extension desired in other legislation. “We really need to get the learning period extension passed,” David Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation, said in a recent interview. He said then he was hopeful the extension would be included in the final version of the NDAA.
The FAA has argued that the learning period, which it calls a moratorium, should be allowed to expire. The agency has said it is laying the groundwork for safety regulations for those who fly on commercial vehicles. Such regulations would take several years to develop through standard rulemaking processes, even after the expiration of the learning period.
“We’ve been doing all we can to prepare for the sunset of the moratorium,” said Minh Nguyen, executive director of strategic planning at the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, at a conference in February. “Our position is that we should be ready to regulate when the moratorium sunsets.”