Hazmat safety agency seeks input on rules for space-related materials

Washington — The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is asking for stakeholder feedback as it looks to “streamline and modernize” its hazardous materials regulations applying to commercial space operations.

Areas of focus include:

• Spacecraft such as launch and reentry vehicles
• Activities that require the transportation of satellites, capsules and related equipment by all transportation modes, but most often by highway or vessel

In an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published Jan. 29, PHMSA asks for responses to a series of questions on the transportation of hazmat integral to spacecraft payloads and components. The questions also focus on the regulatory challenges the industry faces when transporting spacecraft to a launch site, transporting recovered spacecraft and performing related operations while maintaining a high level of safety.

Among the questions:

• Are any requirements in the hazardous materials regulations redundant with the regulatory requirements of other federal agencies?
• Are there hazard communication requirements that you believe are unnecessary for the transport of hazmat to support space operations?
• In what ways are the training requirements of hazmat employees working in the space industry different from those of the hazmat industry as a whole?
• What modes of transportation (e.g., highway, rail, vessel, air) do you use to transport hazmat in support of space operations? Should any potential hazardous materials regulations provisions be limited to a specific-transport mode?
• What packaging or articles used to transport hazmat in support of space operations aren’t designed or tested to an existing consensus industry standard? Are there currently any industry-led initiatives to develop new standards for the transportation and packaging of these products?
• How are batteries integrated into components of spacecraft or payloads? What battery chemistries are being used? How are those batteries transported during the integration process and spacecraft recovery process?

The deadline to comment is April 29.