Welcome to a history of the beginnings of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (OCST) and its early vision. Until news broke on October 5, 2017, of SpaceX’s outrage with current restrictive space regulations, this site was going to describe: how everything started; the vision for the regulatory program; and how the regulatory program was originally designed to work. That agenda still stands but the topic has become much more timely calling for an accelerated launch of the site. Simply, when first conceived the regulatory program was designed to facilitate the pathway to the stars not hamper it. The problem with “visions” is that they are only good as long as someone knows, follows and/or remembers the “vision” and its foundations.
“My career lead me to exciting, even grander and more creative directions after I left, and I never had time to look back.”
I cannot tell you anything about what has happened to the commercial space regulatory program since I left OCST in 1994. In the time I was there I didn’t take it as far as it needed to go, but I got close. My career led me to exciting, even grander and more creative directions after I left, and I never had time to look back. I was aware of things happening that could alter the vision, such as the program moving to the Federal Aviation Administration; the regulatory program falling under the leadership of people who probably didn’t know much about the impacts of regulatory missteps; and unfettered growth of the Office. I also saw other ominous signs such as some urging that OCST be moved out of FAA, or that Congress legislate some type of ban preventing the Office from regulating manned space travel. But I assumed that the original pathway had not been too greatly altered. I guess I was wrong.
So I am launching this website as a work in progress. The original intent was to post it after I completed a number of additional sections. Thus, I have been racing to finish those sections. What the visitor to this site reads here is pretty much what I intended to post originally; very little, other than the acceleration of the timetable for posting the site, has been changed. (The accelerated launch of the site, though, probably means it is not as polished as I would have liked.)
“Commercial space travel is our future, and the regulatory process shapes its direction.”
Commercial space travel is our future, and the regulatory process shapes its direction. If done correctly we humans get to those stars in the shortest time possible. However, done in the wrong way, the pathway to the stars will never materialize or will be rocky indeed. Aviation and automobiles went 50 years or more with no serious government regulation. The regulatory program for the space industry should not be more than a framework that allows all possible futures.
I hope what readers find here will be enough to revitalize the original vision for OCST. There should be ample material for readers to begin to understand that if what is being done today isn’t working, there are different pathways. It’s not that complex. It just requires “vision”.
Norman Bowles