The Space Industry Regulations 2021

CHAPTER 7 Applicable conditions where an operator is authorised to provide range control services in respect of the operator’s spaceflight activities

Application

53.  This Chapter applies where a spaceflight operator is authorised by a licence to provide range control services in respect of the operator’s spaceflight activities carried out by that spaceflight operator.

Conditions applying to spaceflight operator

54.—(1) The spaceflight operator must establish and implement management systems so that the part of its organisation which is responsible for providing the licensee’s range control services is distinct and separate from the part of its organisation which is engaged in the operator’s spaceflight activities, in order to ensure that the performance of the obligations imposed upon the licensee under this Part are neither compromised nor adversely affected by a conflict of interest between the different parts of the organisation.

(2) To achieve that objective, the management systems must include—

(a) separate personnel appointed solely to undertake roles in the provision of the licensee’s range control services;

(b) authorised lines of communication between the appropriate individuals involved in the provision of the licensee’s range control services and the individuals engaged in the operator’s spaceflight activities, for the transmission of data or information relating to the safety of the operator’s spaceflight activities;

(c) measures which ensure that the individuals appointed to the prescribed roles under regulation 11 and the other personnel involved in the provision of the licensee’s range control services report to and are managed by independent individuals;

(d) a process under which—

(i) an individual involved in the provision of the licensee’s range control services can lodge a formal complaint or concern regarding any act or omission by personnel involved in the operator’s spaceflight activities which the individual considers may compromise, or adversely affect, the proper performance of the range control services, with particular regard to the safety of the operator’s spaceflight activities,

(ii) a complaint or concern referred to in paragraph (i) can be properly investigated by an independent individual appointed by the spaceflight operator, and

(iii) appropriate action is taken in the light of the results of the investigation by the independent individual referred to in paragraph (ii).

(3) For the purposes of this regulation, an individual is to be regarded as independent only where—

(a) the individual’s function or role will not involve the consideration by that individual of any aspect of the operator’s spaceflight activities for which that individual bears or has borne responsibility or where that individual’s objectivity may be compromised, and

(b) the individual is sufficiently independent of a management scheme which has, or has had, any responsibility for any aspect of the operator’s spaceflight activities.