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A prime contractor and a mission underwriter want the same thing from a propulsion supplier. They want to know what happens when something fails, and they want proof the supplier understood that failure mode before it shipped hardware, not after. For years those two audiences asked that question differently. That gap is closing fast.
The answer most people assume is wrong. It is not the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation issues launch licenses focused on public health, safety of property, and national security, not on whether a rocket's propulsion architecture is well engineered. A Congressional Research Service review of FAA AST's authority states this plainly: the agency's regulations are built around public safety, not mission assurance, meaning the design and operation of the vehicle itself sits outside its review. The FAA can ground a flight that threatens a bystander. It generally will not tell an operator whether its propellant choice is a sound engineering decision. The full requirements operators must demonstrate are spelled out in