OMB Approves FAA Space Launch Waiver NPRM

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a notice of proposed rulemaking from the FAA on “Waiver of Specified Statutory Requirements for Commercial Space Launch and Reentry Actions”. The NPRM was sent to OIRA on July 7th, 2026.  

This rulemaking was not listed in the just published 2026 Unified Agenda. The rule would almost certainly amend 14 CFR Part 450. Launch and Reentry License Requirements. That Part does not currently include language that deals with the issue of license waivers. Waivers are authorized under 51 USC 50905(b)(3), but that paragraph specifically prohibits the FAA from issuing a waiver “that would permit the launch or reentry of a launch vehicle or a reentry vehicle without a license or permit if a human being will be on board.” 

I expect that the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register in the next week or so. I will almost certainly not provide any detailed coverage of this rulemaking. Under my limited Space Geek coverage, I would, however, expect to announce its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post. 

FAA Sends UAS BVLOS Final Rule to OMB

On Friday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration on “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations”. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published on August 7th, 2025. 

According to the 2026 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking: 

“This action proposes performance-based regulations enabling the design and operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at low altitudes beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and for third-party services, to include UAS Traffic Management (UTM), that support these operations. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 directs the development of this proposed rule. This proposed rule is necessary to support the integration of UAS into the national airspace system (NAS). This proposed rule is intended to provide a predictable and clear pathway for safe, routine, and scalable UAS operations that include package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, civic interest, operations training, demonstration, recreation, and flight testing.” 

As I noted in a CFSN Detailed Analysis post the NPRM included security language from the TSA. I reported that: “The preamble notes that: ‘While FAA and TSA are issuing a joint proposed rulemaking, the agencies intend to concurrently issue separate final rules.’” That separate rulemaking was listed in the 2026 Unified Agenda, but there has been no announcement of its being sent to OIRA at this time. 

Review - 2026 Unified Agenda – FAA and UAS

As I mentioned on Sunday, last week the Administration published their 2026 Unified Agenda. The DOT’s Agenda page lists 36 rulemakings from the Federal Aviation Administration. Five of those address uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) rulemakings. There are no DOT inactive rulemakings. There are just two completed FAA actions; neither of which deal with UAS regulations. 

Those five UAS rulemakings are: 

Commentary  

These five rulemakings related to UAS operations, even the fixed site designation rule, have the common thread of solidifying the place of uncrewed systems in the regulation of the national airspace. This will make counter UAS operations that much more complicated as law enforcement will have to contend with identifying whether a suspect UAS has a legal purpose in the airspace where it is operating. 

For more information on these five rulemakings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/2026-unified-agenda-faa-and-uas - subscription required. 

FAA Sends Space Waiver NPRM to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on “Waiver of Specified Statutory Requirements for Commercial Space Launch and Reentry Actions”. 

This rulemaking was not listed in the just published 2026 Unified Agenda. The rule would almost certainly amend 14 CFR Part 450. Launch and Reentry License Requirements. That Part does not currently include language that deals with the issue of license waivers. Waivers are authorized under 51 USC 50905(b)(3), but that paragraph specifically prohibits the FAA from issuing a waiver “that would permit the launch or reentry of a launch vehicle or a reentry vehicle without a license or permit if a human being will be on board.” 

I will almost certainly not provide any detailed coverage of this rulemaking. Under my limited Space Geek coverage, I would, however, expect to announce its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post. 

Review - HR 7525 Introduced – State cUAS Authority

Back in February, Rep Burlison (R,MO) introduced HR 7525, the Counter Drone State and Local Defender Act. The bill would require the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a pilot program “determine the appropriate policies, procedures, and protocols necessary to allow State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to acquire, deploy, and operate approved counter-UAS mitigation systems and mitigate unauthorized UAS operations.” No new funding is authorized. 

The legislation would add a new section to 49 USC Chapter 448, Unmanned Aircraft Systems: §44815, State, Local, and Tribal law enforcement counter drone programs. 

Moving Forward  

Burlison is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered by the Committee.  

I do not, however, expect that there would be sufficient influence to see the bill adopted by the HTIC. This is because there is still a general disagreement amongst legislators about how to deal with the various statutes that would make various cUAS activities illegal under U.S. Code. This bill uses the legally most questionable, just state that those laws do not apply, and it effectively gives SLTT executives the right to determine where those laws will not apply. That devolution of federal authority will not sit well with most legislators. 

For more informaion on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7525-introduced-state-cuas-authority - subscription required. 

Aircraft Cybersecurity Special Conditions

Today, the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a final special conditions notice in the Federal Register (91 FR 32325-32326) for “Honeywell International Inc., Boeing Model 757-200 Series Airplanes; Electronic System Security Protection from Unauthorized External Access”.  

The aircraft’s revised electronic system architecture and network configuration may may allow increased connectivity to and access from external network sources, and the FAA’s current certification standards do not adequately address that increased connectivity. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to those established by the existing airworthiness standards. 

I have previously discussed the FAA’s approach on these cybersecurity special conditions. In August of 2024, as part of a move on the part of the agency to obviate the need for these special conditions, the FAA published a notice of proposed rulemaking on “Equipment, Systems, and Network Information Security Protection”. The FAA has not yet submitted a final rule to OMB for approval. 

Today’s announced special conditions are not as extensive and inclusive as those proposed in the NPRM. Part of the reason for that is that the FAA typically provides detailed guidance on airworthiness criteria in a means of compliance (MOC) document that provides technical details to both the vendor and FAA inspectors on what the agency expects to see to meet the requirements (see my previous discussion here). 

Review – FAA Publishes cUAS Coordination ICR Notice – 2-13-26

On February 13^th, 2026, the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a new information collection request notice in the Federal Register (91 FR 6976-6977) on “FAA Request Form for CUAS Coordination”. The proposed collection would support requirements for federal agencies and State, local, and tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies to coordinate with the FAA before conducting counter UAS operations. The notice reports that the FAA expects 100 coordination requests annually with a 100-hour annual burden estimate.

The notice explains that:

“Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, State Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement (SLTT) must coordinate with the Secretary of Transportation for certain Title 18 protections under 10 U.S.C. 130i, 6 U.S.C. 124n, and 50 U.S.C. 2661 authorities respectively. This data collection supports these laws.”

Public Comments

The FAA is soliciting public comments on this ICR notice. Comments may be submitted via the ‘Submit Public Comment’ button at the top of this Federal Register page. Comments should be submitted by March 3^rd, 2026.

 

For more details this ICR notice, including discussion of the administrative problems with this ICR notice, as well as a discussion of the cUAS coordination requirements of 6 USC 124n, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/faa-publishes-cuas-coordination-icr - subscription requirements.