AST/AVR turf war is over (via s.s.p)

10/22/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

(sci.space.policy by way of HobbySpace) Randall Clague of XCOR posted this message on sci.space.policy stating that the AVR (aviation part of the FAA) and the AST (the rocket part of the FAA) have agreed on a division of regulation based on trajectory instead of whether or not the vehicle had wings or not (or other rather silly ways of dividing it up). As Randall says, “What this means is that the same vehicle can be an experimental aircraft on Monday, a launch vehicle on Tuesday, and an experimental aircraft again on Wednesday. Which it is depends on how you fly it”. Thus making life sane for RLVs that spend large amounts of their testing lifetimes in what would be considered atmospheric flights.