In a strange twist on the normal relationship between federal regulatory agencies, the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) has found the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) a primary culprit in the October 31, 2014 disastrous test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, in which one of the two pilots was killed, and debris was spread over a 33 mile area in San Bernardino County, northeast of Los Angeles.
FAA safety engineers attribute the agency lapses to a struggle between a duty to protect the public, usually implemented through complex regulations governing everything from aircraft construction to pilot qualification, and its congressionally mandated mission to “encourage, facilitate and promote” American commercial space travel. In the case of the latter, however, FAA has not been granted the same broad powers as it has over conventional air travel, or as its stated mission would seem to indicate. To compensate for this absence of oversight, any person flying on a commercial spacecraft must sign a waiver of liability, stating that the passenger has been advised of the risks and accepts them.