id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cjel-3728	Herron, Thomas J.	Deep Space Thinking: What Elon Musk’s Idea to Nuke Mars Teaches Us About Regulating the “Visionaries and Daredevils” of Outer Space	2019	61	.pdf	application/pdf	24909	1310	52	it is essential that a device have the capacity to cause destructive results by uncontrolled nuclear explosion.70 The meaning of the term “weapon of mass destruction” in the Outer Space Treaty is harder to pin down, especially since the term did not originate with outer space activities in mind.71 This provision reflected the general attitude underlying CSLAA that the DOT should not overregulate the private spaceflight industry before it has the opportunity to grow.231 Even though NASA had regulated outer space activity for a long time, U.S. lawmakers believed that the DOT was ill equipped to exercise complete regulatory authority over for-profit space companies developing their own spaceflight systems.232 CSLAA attempted to balance the needs of the private space industry to evolve in a regulatory environment that neither stifled innovation nor exposed the public to excessive risk.233 Under current U.S. law, the FAA is the lead federal agency within the DOT for regulatory guidance pertaining to private space activity.234 Because the first regulations over non-government space entities were issued in the 1980s—when no appreciable private missions were taking place—the DOT developed a flexible process intended to be responsive to an emerging industry.235 Currently, all vehicles traveling into space or reentering Earth’s atmosphere have to be approved by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (“FAA/AST”).	cache/cjel-3728.pdf	txt/cjel-3728.txt