Alan’s a great science and tech reporter, but I wish that he’d asked George Nield about this:
We have poured a pad for tethered hover testing at our new location, but there was a recent FAA re-interpretation of the law that absurdly states that testing under a tether, as we have been doing for over eight years, is now considered a suborbital launch, and requires a permit or waiver just as a free flight would. This is retarded and counterproductive in so many ways, and the entire industry is lashing back over it, but it is an issue we have to deal with in the next couple months.
Maybe I will.
Rand,
Don’t rag of George. George is a good guy. He’s on our side, this ruling came out of the FAA chief councils office not from within AST.
I’m not ragging on him. I just said that it would be nice to get a statement from him on the situation, and if there’s any attempt to do anything about it. What caused the reassessment by the general counsel? Can it be appealed? Should the Personal Spaceflight Federation be doing so?