14 CFR § 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t14/s437.31"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "14 CFR § 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations."
title_number: 14
title_name: "Aeronautics and Space"
section_number: "437.31"
section_name: "Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations."
chapter_name: "COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION"
subchapter_number: "C"
subchapter_name: "LICENSING"
part_number: "437"
part_name: "EXPERIMENTAL PERMITS"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "51 U.S.C. 50901-50923."
regulatory_source: "Docket No. FAA-2006-24197, 72 FR 17019, Apr. 6, 2007, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "437"
---


# 437.31 Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

(a) An applicant must identify, describe, and provide verification evidence of the methods and systems used to meet the requirement of § 437.57(a) to contain its reusable suborbital vehicle's instantaneous impact point within an operating area and outside any exclusion area. The description must include, at a minimum—

(1) Proof of physical limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital vehicle to leave the operating area; or

(2) Abort procedures and other safety measures derived from a system safety engineering process.

(b) An applicant must identify, describe, and provide verification evidence of the methods and systems used to meet the requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital vehicle's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersions, is over unpopulated or sparsely populated areas, and to conduct each reusable suborbital vehicle flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area.

[Docket No. FAA-2006-24197, 72 FR 17019, Apr. 6, 2007, as amended by Docket No. FAA-2023-1656, Amdt. No. 437-4, 89 FR 76727, Sept. 19, 2024]