2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Collaborations and
Partnerships
FAA Liaison Efforts
In a continuing effort to address access for Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAS) to the National
Airspace system (NAS) in support of our science
missions, the Airborne Science Program has maintained
a liaison within the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) Unmanned Aircraft Program Office
(UAPO). The relationship between the FAA and
NASA has grown stronger as a result of the liaison,
with a greater understanding within the FAA of
NASA’s mission needs and its robust safety processes.
By actively working with the FAA, the Airborne
Science Program has been successful in obtaining key
permissions for important and high profile operations.
Two noteworthy successes occurred this year,
with the granting of the Certificate of Authorization
(COA) for Aerosonde Hurricane Operations in the
Atlantic Ocean north of Barbados airspace, and for
the Global Hawk Pacific Mission (GloPAC) that is
to occur in early 2010 over the Pacific and Arctic
Oceans. A significant amount of coordination by the
FAA went into both of these COAs and reflects the
relationship that has been established between the
FAA and NASA.
Certificate of Authorizations (COA)
The Certificate of Authorization (COA) continues
to be the only method for federal public UAS to
access the NAS. This year a total of 12 COAs were
issued to NASA and 16 applications for both new
and renewals of continuing operations are waiting to
be approved. The COAs are broken out by center in
the table below.
A record number of COA applications were received
by the FAA this year, which has resulted in a severe
backlog. A corresponding lag in application approvals
has occurred, with many applications taking
several months more than the standard 3 months
to be processed. However, the FAA has recognized
that there is an issue, and is taking multiple steps
to remedy the problem. As a starting point, all the
COAs that have applications awaiting approval that
are renewals for previous operations have been given
extensions that expire August 31, 2010. While this is
not a solution in itself, it does demonstrate that the
FAA is cognizant of the effect of the problem on
NASA Center COAs Issued 2009 COAs Pending
Ames Research Center 9 5
Dryden Flight Research Center 2 0
Langley Research Center 0 10
Wallops Flight Facility 1 1
Table 3: Certificates of Authorizations issued in 2009.
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