(a) General. A flight safety analysis must include a collision avoidance analysis that establishes each launch wait in a planned launch window during which a launch operator must not initiate flight, in order to protect any maned or mannable orbiting object. A launch operator must account for uncertainties associated with launch vehicle performance and timing and ensure that any calculated launch waits incorporate all additional time periods associated with such uncertainties. A launch operator must implement any launch waits as flight commit criteria according to §417.113(c).

(b) Orbital launch. For an orbital launch, the analysis must establish any launch waits needed to ensure that the launch vehicle, any jettisoned components, and its payload do not pass closer than 200 kilometers to a manned or mannable orbiting object during ascent to initial orbital insertion through at least one complete orbit.

(c) Suborbital launch. For a suborbital launch, the analysis must establish any launch waits needed to ensure that the launch vehicle, any jettisoned components, and any payload do not pass closer than 200 kilometers to a manned or mannable orbital object throughout the flight.

(d) Analysis not required. A collision avoidance analysis is not required if the maximum altitude attainable by a launch operator's unguided suborbital launch vehicle is less than the altitude of the lowest manned or mannable orbiting object. The maximum altitude attainable must be obtained using an optimized trajectory, assuming 3-sigma maximum performance.

[Docket No. FAA-2000-7953, 71 FR 50537, Aug. 25, 2006, as amended by Amdt. No. 417-5, 81 FR 59439, Aug. 30, 2016]