FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation

The Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as FAA AST, is the branch of the United States Federal Aviation Administration that licenses commercial rocket launch and reentry operations other than model, amateur or government only launches within United States territory or by United States citizens. It was created in late 1984 under a February 1984 executive order, originally sitting within the Department of Transportation own Office of the Secretary before it transferred into the FAA in 1995. The office develops licensing frameworks for launch vehicles and spaceports, manages launch safety through quantitative risk analysis, and is organized into divisions covering safety authorization, safety analysis, safety assurance, business operations and policy innovation.