In the Beginning…
In 1982, a small company with a total of seven employees planned to conduct a space launch from Matagorda Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The company, Space Services Inc. (SSI), had been founded by David Hannah who had, in turn, hired Deke Slayton, one of the original seven NASA astronauts, to manage its launch operations. The goal was to launch SSI’s Conestoga rocket into a suborbital flight to prove a private company was capable of going to space.
Due to the Outer Space Treaty, this posed a large problem for the US government. Private launches were never envisioned when the basis for international space law, the Outer Space Treaty, was created. Only governments were supposed to conduct rocket launches into space. The intent is clear when you look at the actual full title of the Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. This treaty makes nations–not private parties–responsible and liable for damages of a space accident. The US and the former Soviet Union signed the Treaty in 1967.
At the time SSI announced its plans, the US government had no ready regulatory means to prevent or control the SSI launch. The absence of official means to prevent the launch created a panic within certain parts of the government. The government needed some means to pull the launch under government supervision. There were many agencies with regulatory responsibility for different aspects of the launch, e.g. the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had authority over the frequencies used to control the launch destruct system and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controlled the airspace, but no agency actually had responsibility for approving the concept of the launch itself. Finally, in an act of desperation, the US State Department declared that the rocket was being “exported” into space. The State Department used the International Traffic in Arms Regulations as its regulatory device and required SSI to apply for an export license. With the requirement for an export license, the government could decide to approve or disapprove a rocket launch into space by a private citizen or company, such as SSI.
The process that resulted was complex, slow and expensive. SSI had to deal with 18 different government agencies and secure 10 different approvals before it finally got down to the State Department and the export license. Finally, after a lot of uncertainty, SSI got the go-ahead to conduct its launch.
On September 9, 1982, with many reporters on hand to witness the event, the Conestoga rocket successfully launched into space and returned to earth.
The idea of a very small US company being so bold as to launch a rocket had already caught America and President Reagan’s attention. Though a worldwide governmental monopoly on space flight had been breached, this alone did not open the door to future commercial space flight.
But the next set of events involving NASA, the space shuttle, the US Air Force, government policy and a handful of government contractors who had lost their contracts created the opening for commercial space transportation.