United States: Aviation

On March 18, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the first wave of what it calls "Conditional Approvals" have been issued to exempt certain foreign-produced uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS)...

There has been a lot of orbital maneuvering in Washington over the past two weeks as the House Science Committee leadership rebuffed a proposed FCC rulemaking focused on space safety and admonished the commission not to drift beyond its spectrum mandate, a Senate bill sought to extend the International Space Station's life an additional two years and NASA announced it was reshuffling its lunar priorities yet again.

Orbital AI systems are already making consequential autonomous decisions (e.g., collision avoidance, data processing, communications routing) without human review and without a clear legal framework governing any of it.

January 15 – Earth observation start-up Hydrosat Inc. raised $60m in a Series B funding round led by Hartree Partners L.P., Subutai Capital Partners and S4E Capital Ltd., with participation from the Luxembourg Future Fund, OTB Ventures and others.

Against the backdrop of intensifying cyber threats affecting aviation systems, EASA has adopted two texts, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1645 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/203...

For the second time in my career, two worlds I never expected to meet have collided. My day job as a private aviation attorney for a rather large cadre of folks in "0.0004% Club" and a quiet long held fantasy...

The action follows a National Security Determination by an unnamed "Executive Branch interagency body" issued the day prior.

The fiscal year (FY) 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 18, 2025, after it was passed by wide margins in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

If it felt like this was a week of seconds, it wasn't just you pining for a break over the holidays. President Trump signed the "Ensuring American Space Superiority" executive order...