[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 205 (Tuesday, October 23, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53654-53655]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-26664]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No. FAA-2001-10851]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Technology Administration

[Docket No. 011015251-1251-01]


Request for Commercial Requirements for U.S. Launch Range 
Improvements and Modernization

AGENCIES: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Department of 
Commerce, Technology Administration, Office of Space Commercialization.

ACTION: Request for Commercial Requirements for U.S. Launch Range 
Improvements and Modernization.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of 
Commerce (DOC) request inputs from the U.S. commercial space 
transportation sector regarding U.S. launch base and range support and 
modernization. Specifically, DOT and DOC seek to collect range support 
and modernization requirements from current or future commercial users 
of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and 
the Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

DATES: Submit requirements on or before November 30, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Please submit responses to this announcement to both the FAA 
and DOC, Office of Space Commercialization. Your responses can be sent 
in writing and in duplicate to the FAA and the Office of Space 
Commercialization, respectively, as follows: Docket No. FAA-2001-10851, 
Docket Management System, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 
401, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Docket No. 
011015251-1251-01, Office of Space Commercialization, Room 4805, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, Herbert C. Hoover Building, 14th & Constitution 
Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20230. If you wish to receive confirmation 
that FAA and DOC received your comments, include a self-addressed, 
stamped postcard.
    You also have the option to submit comments electronically through 
the Internet to the FAA at http://dms.dot.gov. Information and/or data 
considered to be proprietary should be labeled appropriately and should 
not be filed electronically. You may review the public docket 
containing responses to this announcement in person in the Department 
of Transportation Dockets Office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays. The Dockets Office is on the 
plaza level of the NASSIF Building at the Department of Transportation 
at the above address. Also, you may review public dockets on the 
Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kelvin Coleman (FAA), (202) 267-7972, 
or Paul Eckert (DOC), (202) 482-4571.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The February 2000 White House report on the 
Future Use and Management of the U.S. Space Launch Bases and Ranges 
documented a national strategy to enhance and expand the government-
industry partnership for management and use of the Eastern and Western 
ranges (EWR). This strategy included a recommendation to allow 
commercial users of the Eastern and Western ranges adequate opportunity 
to communicate

[[Page 53655]]

their requirements so they could be actively considered and factored 
into Air Force decisions on range improvements and modernization. 
Further, it was desired that an ongoing process for collecting, 
communicating, and considering commercial requirements for EWR support 
and modernization be established. Thus, the Departments of 
Transportation and Commerce seek to work with U.S. commercial space 
sector users of the EWR to collect commercial requirements, especially 
those common to multiple users, for launch range support and 
modernization. Responses to this announcement should include the 
following:
    1. A detailed explanation of the requirement;
    2. technical and economic rationale, as well as, overall 
importance; and
    3. key dimensions of performance, with threshold and objective 
requirements if possible.
    A threshold requirement is a minimum acceptable value for a system 
capability or characteristic, which, in the user's judgment, is 
necessary to provide an operational capability. An objective 
requirement is a value beyond the threshold that could have a 
measurable and beneficial impact on the system capability, 
supportability, or operational concept of employment. (For example, 
``The imaging subsystem must be capable of maintaining coverage on 
space launch vehicles from first motion through powered flight as a 
threshold and orbital insertion as an objective.'')
    Subsequent to collecting these requirements, DOT and DOC will 
consolidate and prioritize requirements, with consultation from the 
commercial sector, and prepare a report. This report will contain 
commercial requirements for EWR support and modernization, and will be 
provided to the Air Force such that commercial sector requirements for 
range support and modernization can be considered in the Department of 
Defense (DOD) requirements process.
    This request is applicable to requirements for EWR support and 
modernization only, and not to mission specific requirements that may 
be appropriately handled via the Universal Documentation System (UDS), 
per Air Force Space Command Instruction 21-104.

    Dated: Issued in Washington, DC, on October 17, 2001
Patricia G. Smith
Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, Federal 
Aviation Administration.
Bruce Mehlman,
Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, Department of Commerce.
[FR Doc. 01-26664 Filed 10-22-01; 8:45 am]
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