Senate Commerce Hearing on New Entrants in the National Airspace, May 2019

On May 8, 2019, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing on “New Entrants in the National Airspace: Policy, Technology and Security Issues for Congress.”

The National Airspace System (NAS) is overseen by the FAA to ensure that all users can operate safely. That is becoming more challenging as drones and space launches and reentries join traditional aircraft in that domain.  This hearing looked at the impact both the burgeoning use of drones and the rise in commercial space launches and reentries is having on management of the NAS.   Representing the commercial space launch business were Wayne Monteith, the new Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the FAA, and Eric Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

SpacePolicyOnline.com published a synopsis of the hearing on May 8 as part of its “Today’s Tidbits” feature for that day.