[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 2, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16114-16115]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-7934]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Technology Administration

[Docket No. 030325071-3071-01]


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: Notice and request for information.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of 
Commerce (DOC) request input 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: Responses must be received no later than June 2, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Please submit responses to this announcement to both the FAA 
and DOC, Office of Space Commercialization. Responses submitted in 
writing must be submitted in duplicate to the FAA and the Office of 
Space Commercialization, respectively, as follows: Docket No. 
030325071-3071-01, Docket Management System, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 
20590-0001. Docket No. 030325071-3071-01, Office of Space 
Commercialization, Room 4800-B, U.S. Department of Commerce, Herbert C. 
Hoover Building, 14th & Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC 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 Paula Trimble (DOC), (202) 482-4574.

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 their requirements so they could be actively considered 
and factored into Air Force decisions on range improvements and 
modernization.
    Further, the report recommended that the government establish an 
ongoing process for collecting, communicating, and considering 
commercial requirements for EWR support and modernization. Thus, the 
Departments of Transportation and Commerce seek to work with U.S. 
commercial space sector users of the EWR to collect commercial launch 
range requirements, especially those common to multiple users, for

[[Page 16115]]

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: March 27, 2003.
Patricia G. Smith,
Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, Federal 
Aviation Administration.
    Dated: March 28, 2003.
Benjamin H. Wu,
Deputy Under Secretary for Technology, Department of Commerce.
[FR Doc. 03-7934 Filed 4-1-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P