FAA to begin collecting user fees for commercial launches and reentries

[Elderberry]

SPACE NEWS  by Jeff Foust April 27, 2026

The Federal Aviation Administration is ready to begin collecting user fees for the first time for commercial launches and reentries, which could generate millions of dollars annually.

In an April 22 notice published in the Federal Register, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST, announced its intent to start assessing user fees for launches and reentries that it licenses.

A provision of last year’s budget reconciliation bill directed the FAA to charge fees based on the mass of the payload. For 2026, that fee is 25 cents per pound of payload, capped at $30,000 per launch or reentry. The fees would fund work on improving integration of launches and reentries into the national airspace system directed by an FAA reauthorization act in 2024.

In its notice, the FAA said it would begin incorporating terms and conditions for collecting the fees in future licenses and experimental permits it issues. Operators with existing licenses will still be liable for the fees, including those incurred for launches since the beginning of the calendar year.

Under existing regulations, companies planning commercial launches and reentries must supply information that includes the weight of the payload at least 60 days before the mission. The FAA will use that information to calculate the fee, issuing a fee notification to the operator, who will then have 30 days to pay the fee. The notice does not discuss what would happen if the operator failed to pay the fee on time.

The individual fee for a launch or reentry would be a small fraction of the overall cost of the mission, but the growth in commercial launch activity could result in significant revenue for AST. There were 199 licensed launches and seven licensed reentries in 2025, according to FAA data.

More: https://spacenews.com/faa-to-begin-collecting-user-fees-for-commercial-launches-and-reentries/

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

SPACE NEWS  by Jeff Foust April 27, 2026

The Federal Aviation Administration is ready to begin collecting user fees for the first time for commercial launches and reentries, which could generate millions of dollars annually.

In an April 22 notice published in the Federal Register, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST, announced its intent to start assessing user fees for launches and reentries that it licenses.

A provision of last year’s budget reconciliation bill directed the FAA to charge fees based on the mass of the payload. For 2026, that fee is 25 cents per pound of payload, capped at $30,000 per launch or reentry. The fees would fund work on improving integration of launches and reentries into the national airspace system directed by an FAA reauthorization act in 2024.

In its notice, the FAA said it would begin incorporating terms and conditions for collecting the fees in future licenses and experimental permits it issues. Operators with existing licenses will still be liable for the fees, including those incurred for launches since the beginning of the calendar year.

Under existing regulations, companies planning commercial launches and reentries must supply information that includes the weight of the payload at least 60 days before the mission. The FAA will use that information to calculate the fee, issuing a fee notification to the operator, who will then have 30 days to pay the fee. The notice does not discuss what would happen if the operator failed to pay the fee on time.

The individual fee for a launch or reentry would be a small fraction of the overall cost of the mission, but the growth in commercial launch activity could result in significant revenue for AST. There were 199 licensed launches and seven licensed reentries in 2025, according to FAA data.

More: https://spacenews.com/faa-to-begin-collecting-user-fees-for-commercial-launches-and-reentries/

Does it pay for that or does it go into the general fund and support all the BS the government pays for? One I'm ok with...

[Elderberry]

Does it pay for that or does it go into the general fund and support all the BS the government pays for? One I'm ok with...

The new fees come as the FAA proposed a major increase in the budget for AST. The office received $39.646 million in fiscal year 2026, a 5.6% decrease from the $42.019 million it received in 2025 despite growing commercial launch activity.

The FAA’s 2027 budget, released earlier this month, proposes a 43.3% increase for AST, to $56.844 million. Much of that would be used to hire additional staff, going from 136 to 206 positions.

“Since FY 2023, commercial space launch and re-entry demands have surged by 52.7 percent, while AST’s staffing levels have remained unchanged,” the FAA stated in the budget. “To keep pace with demand and support the transition to performance-based licensing, AST requires additional funding.”

The FAA said it would use $10 million of the increase for “highly specialized technical expertise” for license evaluations along with training for personnel and work on automation approaches. The remainder would go toward hiring engineers and analysts for license evaluations.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Yes, incompetent bureaucratic boobs ruining another leading, great American industry smells of success.

The Federal Government needs to stop crapping in its own economic and technological nest.

FAA, how's the latest attempt to upgrade the air traffic control system going?  Is that 5.25" floppy disk still a single point of failure?