Jeff Greason, Vice Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and CEO of XCOR Aerospace, testified before the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Wednesday, December 2.
In his opening statement, Greason said the current regulatory regime for commercial spaceflight, as framed by the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, “has boosted the confidence of investors, entrepreneurs, and customers,” and “has encouraged development of several suborbital vehicles to address scientific research and education markets as well as spaceflight participants, and investments in commercial spacecraft for carriage of cargo and humans to and from Earth orbit.”
Addressing safety, Greason stated, “The need to find a better, safer way to operate is what motivates the industry.”
Greason’s testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee took place on the same day as CSF President Bretton Alexander’s testimony in a separate hearing before the House Science Committee, both on the topic of commercial spaceflight.
Greason praised the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), stating that “AST has done a good job of implementing the statute” of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, “both in new regulations and through developing the skill to work with these new kinds of vehicles. I want to praise the office’s placement of technical staff out in the field, where they can closely observe development and test activities of industry.”
Greason testified along with four other witnesses: Dr. George Nield, FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation; Dr. Gerald Dillingham, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; J.P. Stevens, Vice President for Space Systems at the Aerospace Industries Association; and James Testwuide, Chairman of the Great Lakes Aerospace Science and Education Center at Spaceport Sheboygan.
The panelists took questions from members of Congress including Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Thomas Petri (R-WI).
