FAA Space Flight Safety: Targeting Levels and Care

1. Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Human Space Flight Occupant Safety Telecon Telecon #1 – Level of Safety August 14th, 2012

2. Agenda • Introduction • Rules of Engagement • Next Steps • Today’s Topic • Wrap-up

3. Introduction The FAA may not propose regulations covering occupant safety until October 2015. However, we have a team of folks thinking about it now to be prepared, and we're wrestling with a lot of questions that we'd like input from technical folks from industry and government to help us. As you are now aware, we are hosting a series of one-hour telecons with a narrow focus on a specific technical topic to be held about once a month. We are using our industry advisory committee, COMSTAC, to help us. We value your opinions highly, and would appreciate it very much if you would participate by telling us what you think.

4. Rules of Engagement • When speaking, please identify yourself so we can follow up with you if we have more questions. • We are recording this teleconference. We will publish minutes that summarize the discussion. • Please limit your time to 5 minutes of time to allow for greater participation. You are welcome to follow up with a phone call or email to Pam Melroy at pam.melroy@faa.gov or 202-493-4911. • AST is not currently rulemaking, or proposing rules. We are soliciting industry input as research. Should we consider rulemaking in the future, we may use these inputs for background information. If we ask clarifying questions, please do not consider this to imply agreement, or lack of agreement, with your statements.

5. Next Steps • At the end of today’s meeting, we will take some time to put together minutes and publish them on the AST website. • The minutes will contain a list of attendees, the topic(s) discussed, and a summary of what was discussed. • We look forward to you participating in the next conference call on September 18th at 1 pm Eastern. • Without further delay, today’s topic is…

6. Today’s Topic What Level of Safety Should FAA Target? We want to know whether people think the FAA should regulate to one or multiple levels of space flight safety, what level or levels of safety the FAA should attempt to achieve, and whether the level or levels of safety should be quantified. We will also want to know what level of care, short of a fatality, the FAA should be concerned with.

7. For today’s discussion, what we mean by “Level of Safety” • We mean threshold requirements (e.g., levels of fault tolerance, g-forces) • We mean level of risk acceptance for known risks – intentionally accepting more risk at one level of safety vs. another

8. Crew vs. Space Flight Participants • Should the crew and space flight participants have different thresholds of safety? • In other words, should the crew have more (or less) protection than a space flight participant? • Note: we are not referring to qualifications or training, but to the targeted level of human protection requirements (e.g., air, g-forces, etc.)

9. Multiple thresholds of safety? • Should the threshold of safety vary based on: • Flight profile (Orbital/Suborbital) • Complexity of vehicle • Purpose of flight • Research • Tourism • Extreme sport • Space flight participants who are not paying to fly?

10. Measures of Safety: Quantitative vs. Qualitative? • One method of addressing level of safety is to associate a Loss of Crew (LOC) and Loss of Mission (LOM) requirement. Is a quantitative approach appropriate for the commercial industry? • If yes, is there an alternative quantitative measure of safety you might propose? • If you were to propose a quantitative method, what dimension is appropriate to measure – per mile, per hour, per person, per trip?

11. What is the expected Level of Safety in a failure situation? • Generally in aviation, a single level of fault tolerance to critical hazards provides a reasonable standard of safety. No single malfunction should result in harm to the occupants. • If this model is used for human space flight, after a single failure, should that same level of protections apply? • If a system were to experience a failure leaving you vulnerable to another failure that could lead to a catastrophic situation, should an immediate return be expected? • What if a second failure were to occur?

12. Level of Care Expected? • What level of care, short of a fatality, should the FAA be concerned with? • Note that for the purposes of mishap & accident reporting, the FAA uses the NTSB definition of serious injury (49 CFR section 830.2): Serious injury means any injury which: • Requires hospitalization for more than 48 hours, commencing within 7 days from the date of the injury was received; • results in a fracture of any bone (except simple fractures of fingers, toes, or nose); • causes severe hemorrhages, nerve, muscle, or tendon damage; • involves any internal organ; or • involves second- or third-degree burns, or any burns affecting more than 5 percent of the body surface.

13. Level of Care Expected? National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses the Abbreviated Injury Scale of the Association for Advancement of Automotive Medicine – Level 3 injuries are used for metrics:

14. Wrap-up • Thanks to everyone for participating! • You can post comments, questions, etc to Docket FAA-2012-0818. • If anyone has any new topics or suggestions on improving this discussion process, contact me. • Pam.Melroy@FAA.gov • 202-493-4911 • We look forward to you participating in the next conference call on September 18th. The topic will be “What Should FAA Oversight Look Like?”

15. Backup

16. September 2012 What Should FAA Oversight Look Like? Aircraft-like certification is not feasible at this time, due to current technology and the FAA's statutory mandate only to pursue minimal regulations that take into consideration the evolving standards of safety in the commercial space flight industry. 51U.S.C. 50905(c)(3). We will discuss what a licensing process should look like in terms of FAA oversight, whether such oversight could or should be called a “certification,” and for how long informed consent should remain in effect.

17. October 2012 What Types of Requirements and Associated Guidance Material Should FAA Develop? In general, the FAA favors space transportation regulations that are performance or process based. We will discuss the level of empirical or analytical data necessary to justify any performance-based human space flight regulation, the possible use of Advisory Circulars to add clarity to regulations, and what place government and industry standards should have in FAA licensing.