Page 4 - Forum-2021-JanToMarch

Joseph M. Sedor

DO WE NEED AN ANNEX

13 FOR COMMERCIAL

SPACE ACCIDENTS?

By Joseph M. Sedor, Chief, Major Investigations, the NTSB

(Adapted with permission from the author’s he growth of the U.S. commercial space industry has accelerated over the last
technical paper Do We Need an Annex
13 for Commercial Space Accident several years; FAA-licensed commercial launches have increased from four in
Investigations? presented during ISASI 2010 to 33 in 2018. This increase was partly the result of policy changes after
2019, Sept. 3–5, 2019, in The Hague, the T the retirement of the space shuttle that have required NASA to use commer-
Netherlands. The theme for ISASI 2019 cial launch/reentry systems for International Space Station resupply and astronaut
was “Future Safety: Has the Past Become transfer. Therefore, commercial space launches and reentries will likely continue to
Irrelevant?” The full presentation can be increase, which will inevitably result in more mishaps.
found on the ISASI website at www.isasi. Over the last 25 years, the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety (OAS) has been devel-
org in the Library tab under Technical oping technical expertise and building relationships with stakeholders involved in
Presentations.—Editor)
this emerging mode of transportation to ensure that the NTSB and stakeholders are
prepared to investigate any commercial space accident or incident. Although there
are similarities between commercial space and aviation investigations, the industry
structure, technologies, national security laws, and international treaties that govern
space operations dictate that the investigations will be considerably different. Ulti-
mately, these differences will also drive how states interact during an international
accident or incident investigation.
The NTSB has been leading or supporting commercial space accident investiga-
tions for more than 25 years and has conducted two major space vehicle investiga-
tions. In 1993, the NTSB investigated the procedural anomaly that occurred during
the launch of an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus expendable launch vehicle.
The investigation found safety issues related to command, control, and communica-
tions responsibility; launch crew fatigue; launch interphone procedures; efficiency
4 • January-March 2021 ISASI Forum