**[COMMERCIAL]{.underline} [SPACE]{.underline}: [THE]{.underline}
[FINAL]{.underline} [FRONTIER]{.underline}?**

# Remarks of

## Patricia Grace Smith

## Associate Administrator

FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation

To the

Women in Aerospace Breakfast

Capitol Hill Club

Washington, D.C.

March 14, 2006

**Good morning. I am honored that you chose to be here this morning.
Thank you, Women in Aerospace, for inviting me.**

**It's especially good to be with such a group of talented and
accomplished women during Women's History Month.**

**I like to think we write a little more history every day in the work
all of us do. Right here in this room you can see a new kind of
excitement rising from this invigorated, dynamic organization.**

**And you can see it in the line of business I'm in, Commercial Space
Transportation. In fact, let me start off this morning by telling you a
little bit about us.**

**Of the 59 full time employees in our office responsible for public
safety during commercial space launch activities, more than 30 percent
are women. One, Carole Flores, heads one of our three key divisions,
Licensing and Safety.**

**Included among the key responsibilities held by women in our office
are: aerospace engineer; chemical engineer; chief weather analyst;
senior environmental specialist; industry analyst, and, Associate
Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation. Those women account
for four master's degrees and a Ph.D., and represent more than 90 years
of experience in commercial space transportation.**

**Beyond our office, but still in the world of space, women are involved
and contributing in various capacities.**

**One of the prime companies figuring in private human space flight,
Virgin Galactic, has indicated that the largest percentage of those who
have made down payments are women. There are women to be found in every
line of business, so it is clear that private human space flight will be
no exception.**

**We, in space, are certainly proud of "our firsts." Sally Ride was the
first female U.S. astronaut and Dr. Mae Jemison, the first
African-American astronaut, and Debra Facktor Lepore, the first female
president of a commercial launch company, AirLaunch.**

**Nevertheless, women have traditionally been underestimated and
under-represented with respect to their capabilities. The only thing
left to be said there is what our careers our saying for us ... enough
of that.**

**Now I have to tell you I was extremely interested in the fliers you
produced for this breakfast. The flier says you wanted me to talk about:
"Commercial Space: The Final Frontier?"**

**Well, I think that's a great topic. And the thing I like most about it
is the way you phrased it. You were so very wise to end it with a
question mark.**

**So let me give you the answer right up front.**

**Commercial Space is *[not]{.underline}* the final frontier.**

**In fact, it's the thrilling point of origin for an entirely new world
of citizen access to space, a world, that from the first human flights
and across the decades since, has been limited to a very, very few.**

**That's changing.**

**The interest in *[private]{.underline}* human space flight is growing.
Just a little over two weeks ago, up in Elmira, New York, a reporter
asked Eileen Collins this question: "What is your take on private space
travel?"**

**Commander Collins said, "I am a huge supporter of getting more people
in space. I think the idea of space tourism is great."**

**Needless to say, at the Office of Commercial Space Transportation we
feel the same way Commander Collins does. If our annual Commercial Space
Transportation Conference is any indication, so do a lot of other
people.**

**The Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta, opened the conference,
saying that next year, he expects to issue permits to allow for the
testing of new spacecraft designed to take paying passengers into space.
Once those tests are successful, he said he'll be ready to approve the
first-ever commercial space flights for paying passengers, which he
expects to happen in 2008.**

**That's what we expect to happen also, and our business plans for 2006
and 2007 at the Office of Commercial Space Transportation are all about
making that happen.**

**So, just based on our conference it's clear that private human space
flight is on the way. And when it arrives, it will stand on a solid
foundation. Let me explain.**

**At the conference, Secretary Mineta released a new study -- authored
by a woman in our office, one of your members, in fact, Paula Trimble --
on the economic impact of commercial space on the U.S. economy. In a
nutshell -- taking into consideration a whole range of specific
industries from manufacturing to warehousing -- here's what we found for
2004:**

**The commercial launch industry generated \$98 billion in economic
activity; \$25 billion in earnings, and; 551,350 jobs.**

**And, of course, all of that was done using expendable launch vehicles,
flying commercial payloads. When the industry branches into private
human space flight aboard reusable launch vehicles, the dollar figures
and the job figures will grow.**

**So, for those who look up and see quiet skies for now, don't expect it
to last.**

**Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic, the same team that gave us
SpaceShipOne, are working on a five-vehicle fleet to take passengers
into suborbital space. In fact, more than a dozen developers are working
on reusable launch vehicles.**

**Virgin Galactic is locating its operations in New Mexico where the
state legislature has approved funding to build a spaceport. Virgin
Galactic, by the way, has 33,000 registered applicants and \$10 million
in deposits for suborbital flights. One of those applicants, George
Wihtesides, is a member of our federal advisory committee, COMSTAC.**

**In fact, the FAA has already licensed the operation of five
spaceports, and others, including New Mexico and Oklahoma are awaiting
an answer from my office in the future.**

**The SpaceX team is out in Kwajalein preparing for its next launch
attempt of the Falcon I vehicle with a launch window between March 20
and 25^th^, that promises to sharply cut the cost of access to space.
Imagine what that could mean for our industry ... our country!**

**Space Adventures, most recently, took Greg Olsen to the International
Space Station and recently announced plans to develop spaceports in
Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.**

**In China, India, and Europe companies are building new generations of
rockets, launching satellites, making plans for new uses of space. And
especially here in the United States, those plans include private
citizens, aboard privately built rockets into space.**

**At the FAA, in the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, we're
getting ready for it.**

**In the president's Space Exploration Vision and in his Space
Transportation Policy, commercial space work plays a featured role.**

**For any who still wondered about the imminent arrival of private human
space as facts of life, the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of
2004 erased all doubts. It specifically required the development of
regulations for space flight crews and space flight participants, or
passengers.**

**We published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on this subject last
December. The comment period closed February 27 and more than 30
entities responded with comments we are reviewing right now.**

**The 2004 legislation that mandated these regulations also created an
experimental permit for reusable suborbital rockets so they can first
engage in research and development, and testing prior to seeking a
launch license. The draft Notice of Proposed Rule Making for this type
of permit is currently under review by OMB.**

**Now I want to make sure there's time to hear your thoughts and address
your questions. So let me wrap this up by summarizing where things are
in the emerging world of private human space flight.**

**First, there's momentum here that did not exist before. Who would have
thought that the next investors willing to put substantial skin on the
table would come from a non-space business. So space is being viewed as
a potentially viable new business opportunity.**

**Second, there's a gathering of ideas, talent, private resources, and
widespread community interest in a way that has not happened before.**

**Third, there's a systematic level of preparation at the highest policy
levels in government making it completely clear that private human space
flight is at hand, and we are determined to be ready for it. The next
logical step is the further development of commercial space
transportation.**

**And, fourth, there is international activity, discussion and
engagement that sees space transportation as a matter of international
pride that, domestically, begs the question, for many states, of who
will solidify their position first in the area of private human space
flight.**

**All of this is converging, as Secretary Mineta put it, in the interest
of *[democratizing]{.underline}* private human space flight.**

**You know, back in the 1930s, Amelia Earhart said she knew about the
hazards of flying, but she wanted to do it because she wanted to do
it.**

**The same thing can be said today about the people lining up for space
flight.**

**They want to do it because they want to do it.**

**And they [will]{.underline} do it. Many others will also, as our
adventurous nature as Americans will compel us to do it. And at the FAA,
we're doing all we can to help make it happen.**

**We are on the eve of yet another level of adventure. Our astronaut
ranks have now broadened to include the new category of commercial
astronauts.**

**People can now begin to see themselves in space once that access
becomes more affordable. It will cost a lot now. But let's not forget
that the early days of commercial aviation were open primarily to the
very rich, those with that level of disposable income and willing to
give their dreams a try ... Hollywood actors and actresses, wealthy
business moguls were the ones flying in the early days.**

**Commercial space transportation will continue to develop in a similar
way. But people with the capital to make the first investments are the
same ones working to bring down the price of a space flight, people like
Paul Allen who co-founded Microsoft and underwrote SpaceShipOne; Jeff
Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon.com and the owner of Blue Origin;
John Carmack, one of the giants in the video game industry and the
founder of Armadillo Aerospace, and: Elon Musk, founder of Paypal and
the CEO of SpaceX.**

**These entrepreneurs have decided to make a hard right turn to space
flight development and toward the day that promises the newest form of
transportation -- commercial space transportation.**

**Would you go?**

**I would.**

**Thank you for your time and attention.**