Space Regulatory Review 2024 Is A Must-Read

If you haven’t yet read the DSIT Space Regulatory Review 2024 document published on 16th May, rewind your weekend and read it. It’s that important.

It’s also important that policy and regulatory reviews such as this are given their moment in the spotlight. Space does get rather, “oooooh, aaaaaah”, rather quickly. Whether we’re out on a quiet and cold, crisp evening looking at the Galilean moons through a telescope, or responding with a primordial howl at the massive roar of a heavy-lift launch, we do get caught up in our sensory perception. Nobody stands in front of the CAA headquarters and whispers to their children, “See over there? That’s where the permits come from.” And we are all the poorer for it.

Why do we do it?

This is not a question about why we choose to go to space. It is why governments choose to review regulations. Creating regulations is what governments do, overall, but maintaining their relevancy rather frequently and updating them is not so common. MPs are still not allowed to wear armour in parliament, so this review and update schedule is ambitious.

The authors of the report themselves point to the ambitiousness of the task set before themselves. There were 17 points raised across seven categories that address:

• Regulatory agility;
• Innovation;
• Growth;
• International partnershps;
• Safety and sustainability;
• Accessability, and
• National interest.

The authors claim that:

Taken alongside wider cross-government regulatory activity (Annex B), these
initiatives have the potential to rapidly evolve our regime in a range of targeted areas
to support pro-innovation regulation, deliver efficiencies, enable the UK to remain a
competitive, attractive place to do space business and demonstrate our
commitment to leadership in space regulatory reform.

Space Regulatory Review 2024

I was told earlier this year, and apologies to the person who told me for not remembering fully and being able to cite properly, but I was told earlier this year that one of the reasons for the evolving and expanding regulatory environment is that investing in and operating from the UK should be seen as sensible and with a good value for money, in order to prevent other nations from issuing launch permits for £100 with any real success. And to me, it seems that for every entrepreneur bouncing a company headquarters between Delaware and Texas, there are hundreds who prefer an environment that takes the industry’s needs into consideration as well as the need to protect capital, ecology, and the national interest. This document serves their interests, and we are all richer for it.

Here’s the link to Space Regulatory Review 2024

When you get a moment, read the document on the review. From conception to realisation, it’s all there. Well done! Space Regulatory Review 2024