# 2026-22783: FAA Tries to Clarify Spaceflight Safety With a Word Pile

2026-22783, Flight Safety Limits Objectives Burden Reducing Clarification, is a Federal Register proposed rule from Transportation Department, Federal Aviation Administration published 2026-11-09, effective Send comments on or before December 9, 2026.; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-11-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-22783
- As of: 2026-11-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2026-22783
- Title: Flight Safety Limits Objectives Burden Reducing Clarification
- Type: Proposed Rule
- Agencies: Transportation Department; Federal Aviation Administration
- Citation: 91 FR 70821
- Published: 2026-11-09
- Effective: Send comments on or before December 9, 2026.
- Comments close: 2026-12-09
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: yes
- Regulation identifier numbers: 2120-AM43
- Last updated: 2026-11-11

## In one line

FAA Tries to Clarify Spaceflight Safety With a Word Pile

## Summary

The FAA wants to make it easier and faster for commercial space companies to get launch and reentry licenses by clarifying when they must abort a flight for safety. This change affects space operators and aims to cut down on confusing rules without adding extra costs. Comments are open until December 9, 2026, so now’s the time to weigh in!

## Abstract

FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to streamline the licensing process and reduce regulatory burden for license applicants. Specifically, FAA proposes to clarify the requirements for establishing flight safety limits that define when a vehicle operator must initiate flight abort.

## Effects PRIA read

- Clarifies how to calculate flight safety risk: benefit, medium. The rule changes wording in 14 CFR 450.108(c)(4) so you must compute the conditional expected casualties (CEC) as an average that accounts for outcomes that result in either flight abort or flight outside the limits of a useful mission (but not breakups within the limits of a useful mission). Each…
- One-time cost savings per license applicant: benefit, medium. FAA estimates this clarification saves each license applicant a one-time $1,347 by avoiding extra guidance exchanges (8 hours of FAA staff time and 8 hours of an operator aerospace engineer). FAA expects 40 new license applications over the next 5 years, yielding total undiscounted savings of $53,8…
- No significant impact on small entities certified: benefit, low. FAA certifies under the Regulatory Flexibility Act that this proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, so FAA is not preparing a full regulatory flexibility analysis.

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## Sources
- [2026-22783 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/11/09/2026-22783/flight-safety-limits-objectives-burden-reducing-clarification)
- [2026-22783 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-11-09/pdf/2026-22783.pdf)

## Related
- [Previous: 2026-22782, Flight Abort Burden Reducing Clarification on End of Flight Safety Limits](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-22782)
- [Next: 2026-22784, Conditional Expected Casualty Exception for Failures Resulting in an Uncontroll…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-22784)
- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-22783 (as of 2026-11-11).