ASTM International plans to create a new technical committee for developing voluntary consensus standards for commercial spaceflight.
This comes in part as a result of the updated US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 (SPACE Act). The US Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) Standards Working Group is recommending the organization of the new group.
‘Consensus standards from organizations like ASTM International are known to enhance safety and efficiency in aerospace,’ the organization said in a press release. ‘New standards could support the growing number of people and entities who design, manufacture, and operate commercial space vehicles for both human and unmanned flights.'
The organization will be discussing the creation of a committee at a meeting on 24 October at the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) RTCA Inc in Washington, DC, USA. Industry stakeholders and others interested in charting a path towards standardization for commercial spaceflight are welcome to attend.
The objectives of the meeting would be to bring an array of industry experts together, identify specific standards needs, determine if ASTM International should formally launch a new activity; and, if so, develop and approve title, scope, and structure of a new technical committee.
This story is reprinted from material from ASTM, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
