The Space Industry Regulations 2021

SECTION 8 Emergency response

Emergency response plan requirement

104.—(1) A spaceflight operator must have in place and maintain an emergency response plan for the operator’s spaceflight activities.

(2) An emergency response plan under paragraph (1) must—

(a) detail how the spaceflight operator will respond in an emergency;

(b) be appropriate for the operator’s spaceflight activities;

(c) provide for the notification of the relevant emergency services and coordination with any relevant local authority and such services in response to an emergency during the operator’s spaceflight activities;

(d) provide for prevention of harm to individuals after the emergency has occurred;

(e) provide for coordination of the spaceflight operator’s emergency response plan with—

(i) the emergency response plan prepared by the spaceport licensee, and

(ii) any emergency response plans of other organisations with which the spaceflight operator must interact during the operator’s spaceflight activities.

(3) The spaceflight operator must, at suitable intervals not exceeding three years—

(a) test the emergency response plan in so far as practicable, and

(b) review and, where necessary, revise the plan.

(4) The spaceflight operator must supply to the regulator—

(a) the results of any test of the emergency response plan conducted under paragraph (3)(a), and

(b) before or immediately after they come into effect, details of the revisions, if any, it has made to the emergency response plan as a result of a review conducted under paragraph (3)(b).

(5) For the purposes of this regulation “relevant local authority” means—

(a) in relation to a launch operator licence, a local authority in whose administrative area the spaceport or other place from which the launch vehicle or carrier aircraft is to be launched or is launched is situated, or

(b) in relation to a return operator licence, a local authority in whose administrative area—

(i) is situated a spaceport or other place at which a planned or controlled landing or a planned but uncontrolled landing of a launch vehicle is to take place or takes place, or

(ii) an unplanned landing of a launch vehicle in the United Kingdom is likely to take place.