PART 6Range Control Services

CHAPTER 4The range and hazard areas

Identification of the designated range46.

(1)

Where the licensee’s range control services consist of or include identifying an appropriate range for the operator’s spaceflight activities, prior to the commencement of the operator’s spaceflight activities, the licensee must—

(a)

identify an appropriate range for the operator’s spaceflight activities, taking into account the matters referred to in paragraph (2), and

(b)

provide details of the range set out in paragraph (3) to the persons mentioned in paragraph (4).

(2)

The matters to be taken into account under paragraph (1)(a) include—

(a)

the characteristics of the launch vehicle;

(b)

the planned trajectory of the launch vehicle;

(c)

the capabilities of the equipment to be used by the licensee in the provision of the licensee’s range control services;

(d)

relevant environmental and meteorological conditions which will apply prior to and during the launch, flight or a controlled and planned landing or a planned but uncontrolled landing, as the case may be, of the launch vehicle including the information provided by the spaceflight operator referred to in regulation 97(2);

(e)

areas of population and activities regularly conducted by individuals not involved in the operator’s spaceflight activities—

(i)

at or in the vicinity of the designated site or place, or

(ii)

in any other area in respect of which the operator’s spaceflight activities may pose a risk to the health, safety or property of such areas of population or individuals.

(3)

The licensee must, utilising meteorological, chronological and other relevant measurement systems, accurately identify—

(a)

the locations of the designated site or place, the mission management facility40 or ground control at a spaceport or other place, and of any relevant equipment to be used in the provision of the licensee’s range control services during the operator’s spaceflight activities;

(b)

the dimensions of—

(i)

any area of land,

(ii)

any area of sea, and

(iii)

the volume of airspace,

falling within the designated range;

(c)

the outer boundaries of the designated range, being the estimated location at which the launch vehicle, or any part or debris from it, may land following the activation of the flight safety system relating to the operator’s spaceflight activities;

(d)

the inner boundaries of the designated range, being the activation points for the flight safety system as provided by the spaceflight operator’s current safety case.

(4)

The licensee must provide written details of the designated range without delay to—

(a)

the regulator,

(b)

the spaceflight operator, and

(c)

the spaceport licensee authorised to operate the spaceport at the designated site.