To date three companies have started filing applications with the FAA's Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) for a suborbital RLV launch license: Scaled Composites, Armadillo Aerospace, and XCOR Aerospace. At Thursday's meeting of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) at FAA Headquarters, AST head Patti Grace Smith announced a new milestone: XCOR is the first company to have submitted a "substantially complete" application. This declaration starts a 180-day evaluation period by AST on the license, which means that by late April AST must either reject the application or award them the license. AST made a big deal of this milestone: Smith announced it early in the day-long COMSTAC meeting, and even had XCOR's Jeff Greason come up to the podium to accept the official letter announcing the status of their application. (The assumption is that the license application is for the Xerus, but depending on the rumors you listen to, it could also be for a different vehicle.)
Posted: 8:06 AM ET (1306 GMT)