14 CFR Part 440 - FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This action reopens the comment period for the regulatory evaluation associated with the FAA's January 13, 2015 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Reciprocal Waivers of Claims for Licensed or Permitted Launch and Reentry Activities. The FAA has discovered that this regulatory evaluation was not posted to the docket prior to the close of the NPRM's comment period. Therefore, the FAA is reopening the comment period to allow the public the opportunity to adequately analyze the full regulatory evaluation for the NPRM. The FAA will accept comment on the regulatory evaluation only, and not on the regulatory changes proposed in the NPRM.

The FAA proposes to amend the reciprocal waivers of claims regulations so that customers would waive claims against all the customers involved in a launch or reentry, including those signing a different set of reciprocal waivers. Also, customers of any customer contracting directly with a licensee or permittee would not have to sign a waiver directly with the licensee or permittee, other customers, or the FAA. The FAA also proposes to add an appendix to provide permittees with an example of a Waiver of Claims and Assumption of Responsibility for Permitted Activities with No Customer. The proposed rule would incorporate the reciprocal waiver of claims requirements in the regulatory text, ensure that customers would waive claims against all other customers involved in a launch or reentry, including those signing different reciprocal waivers, reduce the need for licensees and permittees to request a partial waiver of the reciprocal waiver of claims requirements and for the FAA to process those requests, and provide a reciprocal waiver template for permittees with no customers, reducing the need for the FAA to assist such a permittee in drafting its cross waivers.

This notice concerns a petition for waiver submitted to the FAA by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to waive in part the requirement that a launch operator enter into a reciprocal waiver of claims with each customer. The FAA grants the petition.