Regulatory Maze

Uncertain futures - The Space Review (Jeff Foust) - Here's a cautionary quote from Charlie Chafer, CEO of Space Services, Inc., at the NewSpace 2008 Conference:

He noted the slow progress in the development of suborbital and orbital launch vehicles, and expressed skepticism about companies that say they expect to win the Google Lunar X Prize in the next couple of years, in part because of the regulatory paperwork needed to simply secure frequencies for communications with a commercial lunar spacecraft. “You won’t be anywhere near through the FCC in two years,” he said. “It’s so mundane that all of us big thinkers don't think much about it, but when you’re building a business plan, people tend to go, ‘What about that?’”