Center for Federal Accountability

FAA proposes to end paper filing for commercial space licenses and let applicants use a new online portal

The FAA would drop paper filing for commercial space launch and reentry license applications and allow any electronic method the Administrator approves, clearing the way for its new Licensing Electronic Application Portal. The proposal does not describe how the portal will protect applicants' proprietary data or cite a privacy or security assessment for it. Comments close November 4, 2026.

2026-10-06 · Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Department · Information · Docket FAA-2026-9935

On October 5, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration published a proposed rule that would change how companies file applications for commercial space launch and reentry licenses and permits (91 FR 63180). It is docket FAA-2026-9935, Notice No. 26-25, RIN 2120-AM39. Comments are due November 4, 2026. No comments had been posted when CFA's refresh checked the docket on October 5. The same day the FAA published four other commercial space proposals with the same deadline, on physical containment (2026-20386), flight safety analysis (2026-20388), lightning hazards (2026-20391) and overpressure blast analysis (2026-20392). The Office of Management and Budget determined this proposal is not a significant regulatory action.

## What would change

Today 14 CFR 413.7(a) allows applications only on paper in duplicate, by email, or on a physical storage device such as a USB drive. The FAA says that rule would force applicants to seek a waiver to use the Licensing Electronic Application Portal (LEAP) it is building (91 FR 63181). The proposal would add "other electronic method approved by the Administrator" and remove paper. Applications sent that way would have to be in "a form and manner acceptable to the Administrator" (proposed § 413.7(a)(3), 91 FR 63185). Waiver petitions, requests for alternative time frames and separate safety element approval requests would use the same methods (§§ 404.3(d), 404.15(b) and 414.13(a)). Petitions for rulemaking could still be sent on paper (§ 404.3(c)(2)).

The FAA says using the portal would not be mandatory, and email and storage devices would remain. But it asks for comment on an alternative that would require every application and request to come through an approved electronic method, so that it can "automate internal processes" (91 FR 63181). The proposal cites Executive Order 14335 of August 13, 2025, which calls for streamlining commercial space license approvals.

## The numbers

The FAA says no licensed operator has filed a paper application in the last two decades. The savings it counts come from no longer uploading email attachments by hand: 10 minutes for each of about 150 files a month, done by an administrative specialist whose base rate of $41.41 an hour becomes $56.42 with benefits. That is $16,927 a year and $169,266 over 10 years, or $118,885 and $144,387 discounted at 7 and 3 percent (Table 1, 91 FR 63182). Portal development costs are left out because the FAA says it would build the portal anyway.

CFA checked the arithmetic. The discounted columns add up. Ten years at $16,927 is $169,270, not $169,266; the difference comes from rounding. Footnote 3 calls the 1,800 items a year "total applications," while the text calls them files submitted with applications, so the estimate is per file, not per application.

## CFA's observations

These are CFA's observations from the published text. The proposal moves sensitive filings into a new FAA system but says nothing about how that system will be secured: where it is hosted, whether it has an authorization to operate, or how trade secrets and proprietary data that applicants may ask the FAA to withhold under § 413.9 will be protected in it. It does not cite a privacy impact assessment or a system of records notice for the portal. The only privacy notice it names, DOT/ALL-14, covers public comments on the docket. Because new methods need only the Administrator's approval, later changes to how applications are filed would not need another rulemaking. The FAA says the rule adds no information collection under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

## CFA's records

The Transportation Department is not among the agencies CFA grades. CFA's linkage report for the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation lists no Federal Register privacy notices and no privacy impact assessments collected by CFA's crawl.

## What to watch

Whether the FAA publishes a privacy impact assessment or security information for the portal before it opens, and how the portal will handle data marked for withholding under § 413.9.

Whether the final rule adopts the alternative that would make an approved electronic method the only way to file.

How the FAA describes, in guidance or the final rule, the "form and manner" it will accept.

Comments can be filed at regulations.gov under docket FAA-2026-9935, or by mail, hand delivery or fax to DOT Docket Operations. Comments containing confidential business information should be marked "PROPIN" on each page and sent to the contact named in the notice, not to the public docket.

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