Kelvin Coleman

The third test flight of Starship on March 14 marked a huge victory for SpaceX, with the experimental rocket hitting a number of key milestones. The unplanned loss of both stages triggered a Federal Aviation Administration investigation, but neither the FAA nor SpaceX anticipate the lengthy delays experienced after the first two tests.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewStarship’s second test flight, conducted on November 18, 2023, happened 30 weeks (212 days) after its inaugural…

The clock is ticking to get a legislative fix for mission authorization approved, according to Kelvin Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation. “Given that we have some momentum now and that Congress is paying attention, I would hate to lose that attention, so I do think it’s critical to get it done this Congress,” he said last week, talking with reporters on the sidelines of the Commercial Space Transportation Conference in D.C. “This is an issue that’s…

The Transportation Department committed to taking a “very light touch approach” under the White House’s regulatory plan for novel space activities during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Senators asked Kelvin Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, how the agency planned to keep up with regulating crewed and transportation missions in orbit when launch licenses take such a long time. But Coleman said launch licenses require a lot of analysis of safety and…