Overview
- In an April 22 Federal Register notice, the FAA’s commercial space office said it will assess fees on FAA-licensed launches and reentries conducted in 2026, including flights since January 1.
- The 2026 rate is $0.25 per pound of payload with a $30,000 cap per mission, rising each year to $1.50 per pound with a $200,000 cap by 2033, then tracking consumer inflation.
- Operators must file payload mass at least 60 days before liftoff, after which the FAA will issue a bill that must be paid within 30 days.
- Fee revenue will flow to a dedicated Treasury fund to hire staff, add technical expertise, and build automation for licensing and airspace integration as authorized operations climb.
- Per-mission charges are small today—about $8,000 to $9,200 for a typical Starlink flight—but very large rockets are likely to hit the cap by the early 2030s, turning the fee into a flat charge per mission for heavy-lift vehicles.