14 CFR § 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.
---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t14/s437.59"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "14 CFR § 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations."
title_number: 14
title_name: "Aeronautics and Space"
section_number: "437.59"
section_name: "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"
---
# 437.59 Key flight-safety event limitations.
(a) A permittee must conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital vehicle's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or sparsely populated area. At a minimum, a key flight-safety event includes:
(1) Ignition of any primary rocket engine,
(2) Any staging event, or
(3) Any envelope expansion.
(b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital vehicle flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area.
[Doc. No. FAA-2006-24197, Amdt. No. 437-0, 72 FR 17019, Apr. 6, 2007, as amended by Doc. No. FAA-2023-1656, Amdt. No. 437-4, 89 FR 76727, Sept. 19, 2024]