Space safety and regulations

There is a sense of safety in space and governments are still regulating it, says Kevin O’Connell, Trump’s former Director of Space Commerce.

Transcript

00:00You know, Kevin, one of the worries that people have when it comes to something being commercialized

00:04is if it's profit driven, then there's the risk of the profit motive causing cutbacks

00:10in areas that could affect safety.

00:12We've seen it to some degree in the airline industry in places.

00:15What risk is there that, you know, in this, if there's a huge surge for profit motive,

00:19that space becomes one of those that's also vulnerable?

00:20And of course, the consequences could be even worse there.

00:24How can we avoid that?

00:25That, you know, the profit drives cutbacks and things or cutting corners.

00:30So I think we have a sense of safety in space, again, for six decades.

00:34The experiences that we've had mostly through governments are now allowing us to understand

00:40places we can take risk in space and maybe where we ought not.

00:44And governments still regulate space.

00:46OK, now we want them to regulate in a light touch way.

00:49We want them to consider the entrepreneur's interest in addition to safety and security,

00:55considerations which have always been classic ways that regulators have thought about space.

00:59And there are actually ways for regulators to encourage industry in a way that encourages

01:04the business forward in a responsible way.