I didn’t mention this at the time he announced it was happening to his staff, but George Nield has retired from the FAA. Not clear what the future holds for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or who the next head of it will be, but it’s unlikely to remain within the FAA, given the mood on the Hill. It never should have been there. The entire federal regulatory apparatus needs to be restructured for the coming era in commercial spaceflight, both launch and for on-orbit activities.
2 thoughts on “End Of An Era”
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I think it would be appropriate if a whole bunch of us submitted nominations for George to receive the Aerospace States Association Distinguished Service Award:
http://stateaviationjournal.com/index.php/national-news/asa-opens-2018-distinguished-aerospace-service-award-nominations-2
There was an interesting bit of regulatory activity on the part of NOAA with the recent SpaceX launch. The camera telemetry from the second stage, once orbital, was apparently deemed “remote sensing” and so subject to licensing. Better judgment might have been applied on the NOAA side.