AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

AssociAte AdministrAtor

for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion

reseArch And development Accomplishments

fY 2003 

Century of Flight

Charting the Next October 2003 

Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation 

Federal Aviation Administration 

005304.indd

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

AST Mission 

AST’s mission is to ensure 

protection of the public, property, 

and the national security and 

foreign policy interests of the 

United States during a commercial 

launch or re-entry activity and 

to encourage, facilitate, and 

promote U.S. commercial space 

transportation.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

Introduction 

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator

for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) has formulated and

instituted a research and development (R&D) activity to support its

mission and the FAA’s strategic goal of safety. AST has determined

that safety-related research is essential in developing the knowledge

necessary to maintain and improve FAA/AST policy and guidance

material used to verify that products and procedures adequately

comply with FAA/AST safety standards. The purpose ofAST safety

research, with few exceptions, is not to develop the actual aerospace

products, but to support the development of the standards and

guidance material needed to meet AST goals and objectives.

AST has developed and implemented an AST Research and

Development Plan that provides a process for effectively applying

resources for research based on AST’s clearly identified safety

priorities each fiscal year. The Plan was used to solicit candidate

research projects from internal sources, such as AST aerospace

engineers and projects, and from external sources, such as the

Commercial Space TransportationAdvisory Committee (COMSTAC)

Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Working Group. These candidate

research projects were then evaluated by the AST R&D Advisory

Board fortheirrelevance toAST’s mission, theirrelative importance,

and their cost. The Advisory Board then ranked the candidate

research projects to arrive at a prioritized list to present to the AST

R&D Senior Steering Committee for its review and evaluation.

The Senior Steering Committee selected the research projects to

undertake in FY 2003 that had the greatest potential to fulfill AST’s

mission and to meet the AST budgeted requirements for R&D. Four

research projects were selected and assigned to an AST Division.

The R&D Advisory Board and Senior Steering Committee held

periodic reviews throughout the year. This document provides a

brief description of each project to assess the progress being made

and summarizes accomplishments to date.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 1
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

Non-Traditional Flight Safety Systems

and Integrated Vehicle Health Management

AST, with the help of its contractor ITT Industries, completed a

report on non-traditional flight safety systems and integrated vehicle

health management (IVHM) systems. Flight safety systems minimize

the threat to public safety and property posed by a malfunctioning

launch vehicle. Non-traditional versions of these systems include

fully autonomous systems and semi-autonomous systems that

interface with pilots and/or ground controllers. IVHM systems

detect, report, and isolate malfunctioning units and sub-systems of

a vehicle to ensure safety and mission success. The utility of both of

these types of safety systems may be crucial to the development of

a reusable launch vehicle capable of maintaining a consistent level

of safety at a variety of ranges and spaceports.

Based on a proposal for research made by the COMSTAC RLV

Working Group, this report describes proposed and existing designs

for these systems based on a survey of the commercial launch

industry and government research efforts. It further suggests and

describes enabling technologies and verification methods that will

assist in their future regulation.

Flight safety systems employed on existing and proposed

expendable and reusable launch vehicles,remotely piloted vehicles,

and unmanned aerial vehicles are examined and classified according

to the following methodologies:range-containment, vehicle destruct,

flight safing, thrust termination, and vehicle recovery. Technologies

such as GPS-based metric tracking and vehicle command and

control systems that will enable the verification of these systems as

well as their application are discussed. Further, the report proposes

a generalized, multi-step verification methodology that, due to its

applicability to many ofthe technologies described, should be capable

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 2
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

of serving as a draft verification plan forfuture non-traditional flight

safety systems (FSS).

Asurvey of the industry indicates that IVHM technology has not

yet evolved to a corresponding point as the flight safety systems.

Several government and commercial experiments and applications

of IVHM technology that showed promise at the time this research

was proposed have suffered due to changes in funding and priority.

However, due to its generalized nature, the multi-step verification

methodology proposed should be useful to serve as a basis for a

verification plan when these IVHM technologies advance to a more

mature state.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 3
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

Supports FAA Strategic Goal: SAFETY 

Human Space Flight Safety

AST established a cooperative research effort with FAA’s Civil

Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) to work on the Human Space

Flight Safety Research and Development project. The purpose of

the project was to develop (1) medical criteria necessary for human

survival during commercial space transportation operations and (2)

minimum requirements for Environmental Control and Life Support

Systems (ECLSS) on commercial space transportation vehicles with

humans on board.

The CAMI proposed use of a senior researcher through CAMI’s

National Research Council (NRC) program to work on the AST

research project. The NRC of the National Academy of Sciences

approved CAMI to establish a post-doctoral research associate

program in support of FAAresearch activities. In earlyAugust 2003,

the NRC ofthe NationalAcademy of Sciences reviewedandapproved

a research proposal on “Minimum Requirements for Environmental

Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) on Manned Commercial

RLVs.” This research effort will continue in FY2004 and will provide

AST with information on the minimum safety requirements of RLV

equipment to provide a proper environment that will ensure the

survivability of humans on board RLVs, especially flight crew when

they are part of the RLV flight safety system.AST views this research

as a key component for ensuring an adequate level of protection of

the uninvolved public during crewed commercial RLV activities.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 4
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

Supports FAA Strategic Goal: SAFETY 

Thermal Protection Systems Inspection

AST conducted a project to research existing and new inspection

systems and techniques for inspecting components covered by

Thermal Protection Systems (TPS). Thermal protection systems (TPS)

are usually comprised ofrelatively light materials that are capable of

withstanding high temperatures while providing effective thermal

insulation to protect underlying structures. Bonding of TPS, typically

with blankets of ceramic tiles, is very intricate and time consuming.

Bonding of the TPS significantly limits the means by which one can

inspect critical structural components underneath.

As initially proposed, the project was intended to produce a

report examining existing systems for structural inspection in use

on existing space launch vehicles and exploring new inspection

systems and techniques. A white paper produced by The Aerospace

Corporation identified three promising Non-Destructive Evaluation

(NDE)techniques with the potentialto provide adequate andaccurate

inspection of the structure beneath the TPS. They are: narrow-band

eddy; capacitance; and ultrasonic inspection with electromagnetic

acoustic transducers (EMATs).

Based on these findings, the project was redefined to conduct a

review of NDE methods used to inspect existing aerospace structures

that are covered by TPS. Most current techniques are typically geared

toward inspecting the TPS; however, they could be potentially useful

for inspection underneath structures. The goal is to identify basic

issues concerning the inspection of components protected by TPS,

and describe the inherent strengths and limitations of the various

techniques as they relate to the projected needs offutureRLV systems.

The study also will outline the current state of developmental

inspection methods that offer strong potential forfuture application

to RLV inspection and that may be relevant to the future needs of

RLV systems.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 5
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

Supports FAA Strategic Goal: SAFETY 

Reentry Vehicle Hazard Model Development 

and Calibration 

AST conducted a research and development project to develop

a draft document that can be used by FAA and industry to perform

expected casualty (Ec) analysis for Reusable Launch Vehicles. AST

is developing a tabular handbook that would allow its customers–

launch and reentry vehicle developers–to perform a first-hand

estimation of casualty expectation for the reentry phase of their

mission.AST asked TheAerospace Corporation to focus on the aerothermal demise of the reentry debris analysis process in developing

this handbook.

It is AST’s intent to provide this tabular handbook to applicants

as an acceptable method of performing a first-hand conservative

estimation oftheir expected casualty. The goal is to provide applicants

with a less costly method of performing a debris survivability analysis

during reentry. In cases where AST has determined that the above

method is not sufficient, the applicant will be required to perform a

more rigorous analysis –utilizing less conservative methods.

The Aerospace Corporation has presented to AST the initial

documentation of the proposed methodology for calculating the

casualty expectation forreentry over populated areas. TheAerospace

Corp. also presented a sample of the tabular parameters (i.e. casualty

area, expected casualty, probability of impact, etc.) of the lookup

tables that are slated for the final handbook.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 6
AssociAte AdministrAtor for commerciAl spAce trAnsportAtion 

It is the initial conclusion ofAST that this method would provide

a significant benefit to industry and the FAA in performing a

reentry debris analysis. However, it was also noted that many of the

assumptions that are used in the model need to be developed further,

and that continued refinement of the methodology is warranted. As

a result, this research and development task will continue into FY

2004 with a specific focus on populating the handbook. This will also

include refining the earlier assumptions to more accurately reflect

the debris demise process.

AST FY 2003 R&D Accomplishments 7