The Space Industry Regulations 2021

Recording, collecting and retaining information made before or during the operator’s spaceflight activities

103.—(1) For the purposes referred to in paragraph (3), a spaceflight operator must record—

(a) information shared through the means of communication referred to in regulation 96,

(b) where the launch vehicle has a flight recorder required by regulation 109(3), data relating to conditions and events on board the launch vehicle during the operator’s spaceflight activities onto that recorder,

(c) data in connection with the launch vehicle which is obtained using telemetry during the operator’s spaceflight activities and which relates to the tracking of that vehicle during those activities, and

(d) any other data collected or used during the operator’s spaceflight activities.

(2) For the purposes referred to in paragraph (3), the spaceflight operator must collect and retain—

(a) the information referred to in paragraph (1),

(b) records of correspondence between the spaceflight operator and the regulator before launch and during the operator’s spaceflight activities,

(c) the current safety case and current risk assessment and any written document describing any revisions to the safety case or the risk assessment,

(d) any written record of safety concerns referred to in regulations 86(3), 87(2) and 88(b) or an occurrence,

(e) the meteorological and environmental information referred to in regulation 97(2),

(f) reports of maintenance work carried out on communication and recording systems used to make the records referred to in paragraph (1) and of checks made to such systems to ensure the launch vehicle is fit for the operator’s spaceflight activities, and

(g) any other information about the operator’s spaceflight activities which is relevant to such activities being carried out safely.

(3) The purposes of recording, collecting and retaining the information referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) are—

(a) to maintain and improve the spaceflight operator’s safety performance,

(b) to enable the regulator to perform its duties referred to in section 26(1),

(c) to enable the spaceflight operator to comply with the requirement to make an occurrence report under Part 16, and

(d) to enable the spaceflight operator to comply with any demands for such information from an investigator-in-charge of SAIA in accordance with regulation 23 of the Spaceflight Activities (Investigation of Spaceflight Accidents) Regulations 2021.

(4) The spaceflight operator must retain the information referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) for a period beginning with the date on which the launch operator licence or the return operator licence is granted and ending three years after the date on which that licence expires, unless that information has been recorded by that vehicle’s flight recorder and the launch vehicle has not been involved in a spaceflight accident arising from or in the course of the operator’s spaceflight activities.

(5) Where no spaceflight accident arose from or in the course of the operator’s spaceflight activities, information recorded by the launch vehicle’s flight recorder must only be retained until the completion of those activities.