That's right, if you were one of the supporters of H.R. 5382 who had no doubt all along that the Senate would approve the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 by voice vote in the final hours of the 108th Congress, great call. Others were not quite so sure, but in the end, we celebrate a victory for commercial space.

Accolades to many, especially Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).

Needless to note, space advocates, analysts and lawyers have written megs on this bill. Review, for example, Nathan Horsley's perspective, The Costs and Benefits of Less-than-Perfect Legislation, in The Space Review.

Ans here's a recent note in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology (Spring 2004) prosaically titled, Commercialization of Space Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, [pdf] discussing "how the CSLAA would advance the emerging suborbital human space flight industry by explicitly defining the industry to be regulated, by vesting control in a single regulator, and by limiting the regulatory obstacles standing in the way of commercial development." (An HTML version of the article is here.)

// posted by Jesse Londin @ 6:30 AM