"Senator John McCain and Senator Sam Brownback, by authoring this bill, have shown they are men of vision," said Pat Bahn, Washington representative of the SubOrbital Institute.

"Fully one quarter of this proposed legislation deals with suborbital industry issues," Bahn continued. "They and their colleagues are to be commended for being proactive and forward looking."

S. 1260 was passed by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (chaired by Senator McCain) Thursday, June 19th, 2003.

"We don't yet know exactly when the full Senate will vote on this bill," said Ed Wright, Executive Director of the SubOrbital Institute, "but we feel certain it will act quickly so that S. 1260 may then be considered in a conference with parallel legislation from the House of Representatives," he continued.

A possible parallel House legislative vehicle for conference might be H.R. 1085, the "NASA Flexibility Act of 2003," passed by the House Committee on Science's Subcommittee on Space and Aviation Thursday, June 26th, 2003.

Suborbital flight is a small market of huge strategic and economic importance. The suborbital market exists in the gap between airplanes and orbital spacecraft. Suborbital vehicles share some characteristics with airplanes, some others with orbital spacecraft, and still others with launch vehicles; but they are also different in many significant ways.

Suborbital spaceflight presents a number of extremely interesting business opportunities with important economic and national security implications, in areas as diverse as imaging, science, and tourism.

Section 4 of S. 1260, "Suborbital Vehicle Regulations," states, "Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall submit to Congress a report on the need for a distinct regulatory regime for suborbital vehicles taking into account the unique characteristics and purposes of these vehicles.

The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 gives the Secretary of Transportation the authority to regulate U.S. commercial space launch activity. An entity within the FAA is charged to carry out this authority -- the office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, or "FAA/AST."

"FAA/AST has been studying what they have to do to regulate commercial suborbital flight operations," Pat Bahn stated, "and after consultation with industry they've come up with what we think are very good working definitions of just what exactly constitutes a "suborbital rocket" and a "suborbital trajectory." We want to see these definitions made official, which would be a strong, positive action with respect to our industry," Bahn stated.

"These definitions could be inserted into a bill during a House-Senate legislative conference," Wright explained. "The SubOrbital Institute strongly supports inclusion of these FAA/AST definitions into S. 1260 or into H.R. 1085, and we'll work doggedly to make that happen," he avowed.

"S. 1260 as currently written is a great first step, but it is vital that a clear definition of just what exactly constitutes a "suborbital rocket" and a "suborbital trajectory" be made a part of an improved regulatory mechanism for commercial suborbital activities - and quickly!" concluded Jeff Greason, president and CEO of XCOR Aerospace, and member of The SubOrbital Institute's Steering Committee.

Founded in 2002 by several new, entrepreneurial commercial space companies, The SubOrbital Institute's mission is to promote regulatory and legislative initiatives it finds to be important to the promotion of a robust suborbital industry. It is headquartered in Bethesda, MD and may be reached at 301/913-0071.

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