Report to COMSTAC of the RLV Working Group

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Report to COMSTAC of the RLV Working Group

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Discussion Items

• New Leadership of RLV Working Group
• Discussion of RLV Task Force on Training Report
• Presentation on IAF Commercial Spaceflight Safety
  Committee John Sloan and Brooke Owens, FAA/AST
• Establishing Priorities for the RLV Working Group
  
• Establishing a Lessons Learned Database

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Leadership of RLV WG

• Previous Chair George Whitesides
• Now Senior Advisor to the NASA Administrator
• New Chair Bretton Alexander
• President, Personal Spaceflight Federation
• Was Deputy Chair from October 2008
• New Deputy Chair Jeff Greason
• President, XCOR Aerospace

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RLV Task Force on Training Draft Report

• Comprehensive study of potential spaceflight
  training approaches and structures
• Commercial space operations jobs that may require
  training standards
• Training standards approach and recommendation
• Implementation recommendations
• Draft report submitted by Task Force to RLV WG in
  November 2008
• Draft report provided to COMSTAC members for
  comment in April 2009
• RLV WG to continue review of draft report

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IAF Commercial Spaceflight Safety Committee

• FAA/AST Presentation by John Sloan and Brooke
  Owens
• FAA/AST is chairing the IAF Commercial
  Spaceflight Safety Committee, established in 2008
• Co-chairs are Virgin Galactic and Swedish Space
  Corp.
• Two main goals of the committee
• Generate a dialogue on safety and regulatory
  policy issues, identify and advance best
  practices to maximize safety and international
  compatibility
• Create run technical paper session for 2010
  International Astronautical Congress and beyond
• Members include commercial industry, government
  agencies and academia
• First meeting is October 2009 in Daejeon, South
  Korea at the International Astronautical Congress

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Establishing Priorities for the RLV WG

• Develop top priorities for RLV Working Group
• Align RLV WG activities with long-term industry
  and FAA/AST needs
• Develop priorities by next RLV WG meeting in
  October 2009

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Lessons Learned Database

• FAA/AST sought RLV WG opinion on whether a
  voluntary public lessons learned database would
  be of interest to the industry
• RLV WG recommends that FAA/AST implement a
  lessons learned database
• Dialogue with industry on implementation details

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Contact

• Bretton Alexander, Chair
• President, Personal Spaceflight Federation
• 1725 I Street, NW
• Washington, DC 20006
• 703-627-1692 cell
• Jeff Greason, Deputy Chair
• President, XCOR Aerospace
• PO Box 1163
• Mojave, CA 93502
• 661-824-4714

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