The Space Industry Regulations 2021

Training and assessments

70.—(1) Competence assessments must be conducted at intervals determined by the training manager, or in the case of a spaceport licensee who does not have a training manager, by the licensee.

(2) No person who has failed a competence assessment relevant to a function may be permitted to perform that function until the person concerned has—

(a) undertaken further training to address the reasons for that failure, and

(b) passed a further competence assessment.

(3) Training and competence assessments for flight crew and remote pilots may be undertaken by one or more of the following methods, provided that the chosen methods cover all phases of flight of the launch vehicle to which the flight crew or remote pilots will be assigned—

(a) flight in that launch vehicle;

(b) use of simulated training devices;

(c) flight in an aircraft—

(i) possessing similar characteristics to those of that launch vehicle, or

(ii) that has similar phases of flight to that launch vehicle.

(4) No emergency situation may be simulated in a launch vehicle on which spaceflight participants are being carried, unless the only spaceflight participants on the flight are persons authorised by the regulator to train the crew or to check any aspect of the licensee’s spaceflight activities, including the work of the crew.

(5) The licensee must, before a launch (a “mission”), conduct one or more rehearsals of the mission, in order to test its operational procedures and train staff in their operational duties.

(6) A mission rehearsal conducted under paragraph (5) must as nearly as possible reproduce the intended spaceflight, spaceport and range control activities which would be carried out on the mission, including—

(a) normal and abnormal situations;

(b) pre-launch, spaceflight and post-launch scenarios;

(c) any conditions in space that could affect the operator’s spaceflight activity.

(7) A mission rehearsal conducted under paragraph (5) may include a spaceflight participant if this is necessary to enable the spaceflight participant to achieve the training objectives set for that participant, or to complete a competence assessment satisfactorily.