DOT Proposes Five Rule Changes to Streamline Part 450 Launch Licensing

The Department of Transportation on Tuesday proposed five FAA rules to streamline and modernize commercial space launch and reentry regulations. The package targets the Part 450 licensing framework and marks the first output from the department's new SPACE Task Force. Public comments close Nov. 4.

The proposals aim to balance efficiency and flexibility with existing safety standards. Updating the rules is intended to help industry meet the White House goal of 1,000 commercial launches and reentries per year by 2030. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the changes, which the department describes as its first response to a commercial space executive order.

Part 450 took effect in March 2021 to streamline launch licensing, but companies claimed it did the opposite, prompting a series of complaints. In February 2025, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee leaders asked the GAO to examine whether the agency licenses launches in a timely way. President Donald Trump signed a commercial space executive order in August 2025 directing the department to reevaluate, amend, or rescind the rule. By March, every legacy launcher had moved on to Part 450, which had produced 14 licenses in five years.

The proposed changes consolidate the documentation operators submit for flight-safety analyses and let operators size flight-hazard areas by a vehicle's maximum energy when they rely on physical containment, instead of a full probabilistic risk analysis. The proposals exempt descending vehicles from extra lightning mitigation as long as they cannot leave an area from which the public was already cleared, and they allow operators to submit license applications electronically. A final change clarifies that far-field blast analyses must cover existing locations, not hypothetical ones.

Far-field blast analyses model the impact of a rocket explosion's shock wave on windows miles away. As previously written, some applicants interpreted the rule as requiring them to guess where people might live in the future. The FAA says it always meant existing windows, so the fix is to delete a single word, hypothetical.

The SPACE Task Force, launched Sept. 9, is an intradepartmental body that coordinates space policy on behalf of the department. Its responsibilities include implementing the White House National Space Transportation Policy and leading a commercial space transportation strategy.

Acting Deputy FAA Administrator Liam McKenna called the proposed rules just the beginning of the agency's push to cut regulatory red tape. The proposals move into a rulemaking process before taking effect and update wording that was construed in a way the agency did not intend.

The proposals, if adopted, are intended to help industry reach the White House target of 1,000 commercial launches and reentries per year by 2030. The department frames the changes as keeping only the regulatory requirements tied to safety while easing the licensing burden on operators.

Public comments on the five proposed rules close Nov. 4. McKenna signaled further action ahead, describing the package as the start of the agency's effort to reduce regulatory requirements in commercial space licensing.