Every time a rocket soars into the sky carrying satellites or supplies for the International Space Station, air traffic controllers on the ground must take critical steps to ensure that commercial and passenger aircraft remain safe. .
The controllers, hired by the Federal Aviation Administration, close the airspace, provide real-time information on the rockets and their debris and then reopen the airspace quickly after completing a launch.
But unlike airlines, which pay federal taxes for the work of air traffic controllers every time their planes fly, commercial space companies are not required to pay for their launches. This includes companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has launched more than 300 rockets for the past 15 years mostly carrying satellites for its Starlink internet service.
The Biden administration is looking to change that. President Biden’s latest budget proposal, released last month, suggests that for-profit space companies begin paying for their use of government resources.
Commercial space companies are exempt from aviation excise taxes that fill the coffers of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which pays for the FAA’s work and gets about $18 billion in tax revenues for the current financial year. Taxes are primarily paid by commercial airlines, which are charged 7.5 percent of each ticket price and an additional fee of approximately $5 to $20 per passenger, depending on the destination of each flight.
to Mr. Biden budget proposal vowing to work with Congress to overhaul the tax structure and split the cost of operating the nation’s air traffic control system. His promise is based in part on an independent safety evaluation report commissioned by the FAA, which recommends that the federal government update excise taxes to charge commercial space companies.
“Every time SpaceX launches a flight, it requires massive air traffic control resources to clear the airspace for hours around the launch window,” said David Grizzle, an author of the report on safety and the former chief operating officer of the Air Traffic Organization, an agency. within the FAA hiring controllers. “And again, it pays zero.”
SpaceX did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mr. Biden’s call for reform of the decades-old excise tax structure is part of his push to make Americans and corporations richer “pay their fair share.” In his State of the Union address last month, Mr. Biden also called for raising taxes on private and corporate jet users, including raising the tax they pay on jet fuel to $1.06 a gallon from 21.8 cents per gallon over five years. That fuel tax is currently building around 3 percent of annual income of the trust fund, which is heavily dependent on what commercial airlines and their passengers pay.
However, commercial space companies do not contribute to that fund or share any of the costs the public bears when the rockets are launched, said William J. McGee, a former aircraft dispatcher licensed by the FAA and a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, a consumer advocacy group.
“It’s a question of basic fairness,” Mr. McGee said. “It would be the equivalent of having a toll system on a highway and waving to certain users and not others.”
Rocket launches are a time-intensive process for the FAA, former air traffic controllers say. The agency had to create a detailed plan outlining the exact airspace to shut down and reroute planes before launch. Controllers must also respond quickly if something goes wrong.
“Consider a space launch similar to a hurricane making landfall,” said Michael McCormick, a former air traffic controller who worked for the FAA for more than three decades and now teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. .
Storms disrupt plans, close airports and force planes to reroute. Rocket launches require equally intricate planning from controllers, Mr. McCormick said.
“In Florida — which is also one of the densest commercial aviation traffic corridors — you can start to see some real system impacts,” said Michael P. Huerta, who served as FAA administrator during the Obama and Trump administrations and now. the chairman of the safety review board who wrote the report. Commercial rockets now fly out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral, Fla., near Orlando.
The number of space launches there are increased dramatically in recent years, led by SpaceX, which puts dozens of satellites into Earth’s orbit every month. In recent years, parts of NASA’s missions have also been contracted out to commercial space companies that carry supplies to the International Space Station.
By 2023, the FAA handled 117 launches, a significant jump from a decade earlier when there were only 15 flights. More than 30 rockets have been launched so far this year, putting 2024 on pace to surpass last year’s number. The launch count includes US rockets that have taken off from New Zealand, where the space agency has been regulates its ground launches with the FAA.
The increase in launches is also prompting the FAA to devote more resources to overseeing and permitting space activities, separate from the work of air traffic controllers. The administration is requesting $57 million for permitting and licensing for the commercial space industry for the 2025 fiscal year, an increase from about $37 million was spent in 2023. The FAA added 33 new employees to its office of licensing and oversight for industry last year.
Commercial space companies are rejecting the Biden administration’s suggestion that they pay aviation taxes. Industry members argue that it is still at a nascent stage, when most businesses are struggling to break even. They also point out that rockets only need about 15 seconds to fly through airspace and that the number of rocket launches is still negligible compared to the surrounding area. 16 million flights administered annually by the FAA.
Taxing the industry is “not appropriate at this time,” said Karina Drees, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the industry group that represents more than 80 companies and universities. “The commercial space industry, in close cooperation with its FAA regulator, continues to improve the coordination of launch activity and avoid unnecessary impacts on” US airspace.
But Mr. Huerta and Mr. Grizzle said Congress should begin looking for ways to tax the industry in anticipation of a boom in launches that is already underway.
More rocket launches increase pressure on an air traffic control system already crippled by insufficient funding, understaffing and overworked personnel, the authors of the independent safety report said. . Dozens of near-collision events reported last year — in which commercial aircraft came dangerously close to each other — showed that the FAA’s safety margins had become thin.
The combination of staff shortages and insufficient funding for new equipment “presents a perfect storm for more serious events to occur,” Mr. Grizzle said. “The situation will only get worse, as the number of new entrants who do not pay taxes continues to increase”.
The FAA said in a statement that the agency is “committed to safely handling rapidly increasing space operations while minimizing disruption to the aviation public.”
