A ULA Atlas 5 rocket and the NROL-101 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office sit on the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at sunset Nov. 12, 2020.

The FAA’s rapid success in creating updated launch and reentry rules reflects its leadership’s measured look at the current regulations and willingness to build on what they have learned from the commercial launch community.

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Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. He was named senior staff writer in 2004, a position he held until being named...