A new bill may open the door for the FAA to charge licensing fees on space launches starting in 2026, with an initial cap of $30,000 per launch.
For the longest time, commercial spaceflight companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, have been able to send rockets into space without having to pay any fees. But a new bill introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in early June could be about to change that. The legislation proposes that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) should charge licensing fees for rocket launches and reentries, starting in 2026.
The bill comes months after the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) requested a funding increase to improve its operations. Specifically, the office sought a $57.13 million budget for 2025 from $42.018 million the previous year. Of the figure, the AST intended to allocate $7.9 million for workforce expansion. By increasing its staff, the office believed it could better serve clients processing licenses for launches and reentry of rockets. For context, the AST only licensed 11 commercial launches in 2015.
