WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space transportation office is leaving the agency through a deferred resignation program.
The FAA confirmed to SpaceNews that Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, is among those who opted into the second round of a program intended to reduce the overall workforce at the Department of Transportation, which includes the FAA. Reuters first reported Coleman’s departure.
“The FAA provided employees with a second chance to voluntarily resign or retire through the Deferred Resignation Program,” an FAA spokesperson told SpaceNews. “The agency is working with employees who accepted the offer to transition their work and complete the offboarding process.”
The department reopened the program at the beginning of April after an initial round of offers just after the start of the Trump administration. The program allows participants to resign but continue to be paid through the end of the fiscal year.
Coleman has led the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST, since 2022, after being named deputy associate administrator in 2017. During that time, the amount of commercial launch activity has grown enormously, from 23 licensed launches in 2017 to 157 in 2024.
That has put a strain on the office, which the FAA has responded to by seeking additional staff and other resources, as well as streamlining the licensing process. The latter included new launch and reentry licensing regulations, called Part 450, that took effect in 2021.
Industry, though, has complained about the implementation of Part 450, leading the FAA to create a space-related Aerospace Rulemaking Committee, or SpARC, to collect industry input on ways to improve Part 450. FAA officials said at the Commercial Space Conference in February that the SpARC was expected to complete its work by July, and that it was working on other improvements, such as a new electronic system for license applications.
Key member of Congress at the conference, though, raised their own concerns about the pace of licensing. Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, announced there that he and the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), asked the Government Accountability Office to review Part 450.
Industry officials, while frustrated at times with Part 450, have privately expressed concerns about the departure of Coleman and, potentially, other key people at AST. They worry that the loss of senior leadership would exacerbate workforce challenges in the office.
The FAA noted in its statement that employees who have “safety-critical functions” were not eligible for the buyout. “We have a deep reserve of experienced talent, and we ensure orderly transitions by continuously training people to move up and assume leadership roles,” the agency stated.
