Bystanders cheered as Elon Musk’s supersized, stainless steel SpaceX Starship roared into the sky from Boca Chica Beach, Texas, on April 20.
Almost two minutes later, as the unmanned craft—designed to transport people and cargo to the moon and Mars—disappeared in a fireball, they cheered just as enthusiastically.
Musk had told reporters four days earlier, “If we get far enough away from the launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the launch pad.”
And as the flaming wreckage tumbled into the Gulf of Mexico, an announcer narrating a video of the launch told viewers, “Everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake.”
But Musk’s sweet desserts presented the perpetually sticky situation that has befallen every player in the space industry.
The risks of space travel were freshly on display, and the scene just so happens to appear as lawmakers in America’s most space-active state consider changing the law governing who’s responsible for space-related accidents.
It remains to be seen if the proposed changes will continue rocketing through the legislature or whether those now may go down in flames.
A week earlier, Florida’s House Judiciary Committee and Civil Justice Subcommittee approved changes to a bill that’s been steering through the Florida Legislature. Similar legislation is moving through the state Senate.
While neither project has yet to have a successful “launch,” they both signal that an even bigger boom in human space travel is on the horizon.
At the time of this article’s publication, lawmakers have submitted two nearly-identical space bills before both the state House and Senate rules committees.
Awaiting launch clearance in both chambers is an amendment to the current statute defining “informed consent” on spaceflight, as well as terms and limits of “spaceflight entity liability.”
Whether by SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule, Boeing’s Starliner, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, NASA’s Artemis Program, or any other company, human spaceflight activity is only going to skyrocket at Florida’s famous spaceport.
House Space Bill
Rep. Tyler Sirois, the Republican representative for Merritt Island, the spot of Florida Coastline that hosts Kennedy Space Center’s launch sites, is the sponsor of House Bill No. HB 839, which intends to change the spaceflight consent and liability legislation officially known as Florida Statute 331.501.In its current form, the liability statute appears limited to only “spaceflight participants,” the few ultra-rich private citizens who have been able to buy one of the rare space-bound seats available aboard a government-owned and operated spacecraft with professional astronauts on government-funded missions.
But with the onset of commercial crew programs and the general takeover of the private sector, new types of players are joining the game.
Sirois’ bill will expand the statute to cover “crews”: professionals employed or contracted to perform tasks that are “directly relating to the launch, reentry, or other operation of or in a launch vehicle or reentry vehicle that carries human beings.”
The language almost anticipates the manifestation of science fiction as it makes ready for private citizens to go to—or make proper preparations for others to go to—space for professional reasons.
This bill would also refine the definition of a “spaceflight entity” and suggests that a public or private organization can be “otherwise authorized by the United States Government to conduct spaceflight activities” outside of receiving a “license for spaceflight activities” from the United States Federal Aviation Administration.
More Focus on NASA
Meanwhile, an amendment progressing simultaneously in the Florida Senate requests the addition of specific inclusion of NASA and government astronauts.This version of the bill also requests that the recognized definition of “spaceflight activities” specifically includes “activities occurring between launch and landing,” while the state house’s version remains limited to launch and reentry services.
While vague, the state Senate’s bill seems to suggest there would not be a distinction between government-employed NASA astronauts—such as those onboard the government-owned Space Launch System and Orion capsule designed for the Artemis program and the ISS Expedition Crew Members hitching a ride on Crew Dragon or Starliner—and private citizens, crew, as well as foreign astronauts.
The specification of mid-flight activities could also account for any inherent risks related to docking and spacewalking, such as collisions with vehicles or meteoroids.
Accountability on Both Sides
Both versions of the bill appear to align on the accountability put on the spaceflight participants and crew, as well as on the spaceflight companies.While space is a dangerous frontier, brave feats of exploration over the past 60 years have proven that measurable standards of safety regulations can be maintained and enforced.
So, the amendments also change how companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin can be left without that liability immunity.
Florida’s House of Representatives’ version would ensure that liability immunity will be lost if an entity, “Has actual knowledge or reasonably should have known of an extraordinarily dangerous condition that is not inherent in spaceflight activities, which danger proximately causes injury, damage, or death to the participant or crew.”
Meanwhile, the Senate specifies that the companies only need to have “actual knowledge of an extraordinarily dangerous condition that is not inherent in spaceflight activities.”
The legislation in its current state already protects the few space tourists—“participants”—against a company’s proven “act or omission that constitutes gross negligence or willful or wanton disregard for the safety,” that leads to injury, damage, or death, as well as if any space company intentionally injures a participant.
Expanding Legislation
While Musk’s Starship launched from SpaceX’s new Star Base in Boca Chica, Texas, the multi-platform launch complexes at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Base remain two of the busiest spaceports in the world.And, after the Starship’s ultimate mission failure, the Merritt Island spaceports remain the only ones in the United States currently with proven capability of delivering human beings not just to sustainable Earth orbit, but also to the space station and the Moon.
In fact, while suborbital crewed flights have been successfully conducted in New Mexico and Texas, and uncrewed launch sites remain active across the country, Florida’s Space Coast remains the only place to ever launch men and women to Low Earth Orbit, the ISS, and the Moon from American soil.
NASA plans to launch the first crewed mission of its Artemis Program—returning humanity to the moon from Complex 39B in November 2024.
So far, along with Starlink and other unmanned rideshare operations, the number has included one Crew Dragon Mission launch, one unmanned supply mission to the ISS, and will soon include the second private passenger mission to the ISS (Axiom 2), from Complex 39A in just a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is also expected to operate its own orbit-capable New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36. Its first launch is expected to occur in late 2024.
The first crewed mission of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the ISS is also tentatively scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Complex 41 in July.
Now, Florida lawmakers still have work to do before any version gets passed, including ultimately deciding which parts of which version ends up in the final draft. But they both are aiming for the amendment to go into effect on July 1, 2023.
Florida’s booming space business challenges the state to maintain its leading pace in both facilities and legislation.
Sirois has previously stated to the House Judiciary Committee that this update is an answer to the private sector’s continuing dominance of space flight activity in Florida, arguing that government-backed military activity has not been dominant since the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
“We had a government vehicle with a government crew, and the crew, most of the time, were members of our armed forces,” he said. “We’re making sure that Florida stays at the forefront ... where space operations can continue to grow.”
Sirois could not be reached for further comment.
Florida’s next crewed space flight will be the Axiom 2 mission carrying two private spaceflight participants to the ISS onboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. It is tentatively scheduled for May 8, 2023.
