SpaceChecking the flight commit criteria
Flight commit criteria are the conditions that must all be true before a rocket may fly. Federal law lists what they include and makes the operator verify each one before flight. You go down the list on launch day: hazard areas, weather and lightning, collision-avoidance closures, every safety-critical system ready, the FAA's word on critical assets and any other control from the safety analyses.
Free to startScenarios
- The weather briefing tracks favorable conditions with cumulus clouds, precipitation and ground winds as the concerns.
- A window closure for collision avoidance falls inside the launch window.
- The range cannot confirm its link with the flight termination system, as happened on Artemis II launch day.
The steps
- Confirm surveillance of every flight hazard area on land, sea and air, and that warnings were published; if another entity publishes them, check they were issued and tell the FAA if not.
- Monitor the weather conditions the safety analyses need, including the lightning criteria; on Artemis II the briefing covered wind speeds, precipitation, lightning risk and sea states.
- Apply every window closure in the launch window that is set for collision avoidance with objects in orbit.
- Confirm that every safety-critical system is ready for flight, among them the flight termination system that lets the ground destroy the rocket if it veers off course. Critical point
- Get the FAA's confirmation that the risk to critical assets meets the federal limit.
- Check any other hazard control that comes from the safety analyses.
- Verify that each flight commit criterion is satisfied before flight is initiated, working with the current approved version of the pre-flight procedures.
Safety rules that stop the station
- A flight commit criterion that is not satisfied means no flight: each one is verified before flight is initiated.
- Without assurance that the flight termination system would work if needed, the launch is no-go.
To pass
- Every flight commit criterion on the list checked and satisfied before flight.
- Hazard areas watched and warned, weather and lightning inside the limits and collision-avoidance closures respected.
- The team works from the approved, current pre-flight procedures.
Official source
14 CFR Part 450, Launch and reentry license requirements
GovInfo publishes 14 CFR Part 450 free: 450.165 lists what the flight commit criteria include and 450.159 makes the operator verify each one before flight.
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