2011 California Code
Government Code
TITLE 2. GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA [8000 - 22980]
CHAPTER 5. Space Enterprise Development Act
Section 13999.1

For purposes of this act, the following terms have the following meanings:

(a) Agency means the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.

(b) Authority means the California Spaceport Authority.

(c) Date of designation means the date that the spaceport receives designation by the authority pursuant to Section 13999.3.

(d) Governing body means the governing body of a city, county, city and county, special district, or joint powers authority.

(e) Launch means to place, or attempt to place, a launch vehicle into a ballistic, suborbital, or orbital trajectory, into Earth orbit in outer space, or otherwise into outer space, and also is a means of placing a commercial, civil, or military payload into Earth orbit or beyond, including all activities involved in the preparation of a launch vehicle for flight, including all processing, servicing, and support activities that take place at a launch site or at a California mission control support site for ocean launches. A launch begins with the arrival of the launch vehicle or payload at the launch site.

(f) Launch site means a location from which a space launch or operation directly associated with a space launch takes place, a location at which a launch vehicle or its payload, if any, is intended to land, or as defined in the Commercial Space Launch Act (49 U.S.C. Sec. 70101 and following). The site includes any right-of-way directly associated with the space launch or reentry operations and all facilities and support infrastructure related to launch, reentry, or payload processing.

(g) Launch vehicle means a vehicle specifically designed and built to operate in or place a payload in the upper atmosphere or outer space. Launch vehicles include, but are not limited to, expendable space launch vehicles and reusable launch vehicles.

(h) Operation of a launch site means the conduct of approved safety operations at a launch site to support the launching of vehicles and payloads.

(i) Operation of a reentry site means the conduct of safety operations at a fixed site on Earth at which a reentry vehicle and its payload, if any, is intended to land.

(j) Payload means an object, including, but not limited to, a satellite that a licensed launch site undertakes to place into outer space by means of a launch vehicle, including components of the vehicle specifically designed or adopted to support that activity.

(k) Person means any individual and any corporation, partnership, joint venture, association, or other entity organized or existing under the laws of any state or nation.

(l) Reentry means the return of any launch vehicle that has been placed in a ballistic, suborbital, or orbital trajectory, and its payload, if any, to the Earth. Reentry includes all activities involved in the postflight ground operations. A reentry ends when a launch vehicle or payload, if any, has completed its descent to Earth and is retrieved.

(m) Reentry site means the location on Earth at which a reentry is intended to occur, as defined in a license issued or transferred by the United States Secretary of Transportation, and any necessary support infrastructure related to reentry or payload recovery.

(n) Reusable launch vehicle means a vehicle that is designed to launch into an orbital or suborbital trajectory, into Earth orbit in outer space, or otherwise into outer space, that returns to Earth and is reused for a subsequent future launch.

(o) Secretary means the Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing.

(p) Spaceport means an entity that has been designated pursuant to Section 13999.3.

(Added by Stats. 2003, Ch. 627, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2004.)