Originally Posted by
Std Deviation
The FAA mission to concomitantly "promote" and "regulate" aviation are diametrically opposed philosophies.
I was told that they figured that out some time ago and that those two ideas were separated - mission statement redefined.
The current MISSION STATEMENT does not mention such opposed ideas:
Mission
The only 'promote and regulate' I see any more is to:
"Regulating civil aviation to promote safety"
What we do
They (the gov't) at least recognizes this when it comes specifically to Commercial Space Travel as disclosed in this GAO report:
GAO report number GAO-12-836T
entitled 'Commercial Space Transportation: Industry Trends, Government Challenges, and International Competitiveness Issues' which was released on June 20, 2012.
...suggesting that FAA and Congress must remain vigilant so that potential conflicts in FAA’s safety oversight and industry promotion roles do not occur.
Congress required the 2008 DOT-commissioned report
to discuss whether the federal government should separate the
promotion of commercial human spaceflight from the regulation of such activity.