Daejeon City held a Regulatory Free Zone Demonstration Item Deliberation Committee on the 14th to establish a specific demonstration plan for the Space and Aviation Regulatory Free Zone. This is a follow-up measure to the selection of the regulatory free zone project candidate zone hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in September last year.

The space industry is rapidly growing as it enters the private-led New Space era, and competition between countries is also fierce. As a latecomer, Korea must strengthen its competitiveness through regulatory improvement to gain an edge in global competition.

Currently, space-related laws and regulations are tailored to the government-led development era, which limits the free participation and creative activities of private companies. Space technology is rapidly developing, but related laws and regulations are not keeping up, making it urgent to establish a regulatory system that can flexibly respond to changes.

Accordingly, Daejeon City has been planning and participating in the regulatory free zone project since last year to prepare regulatory relaxation and support measures for the revitalization of the private space industry as a research and human resource development special zone for the space industry cluster.

Based on the demand of space companies, we are focusing on establishing technical standards for space propulsion components that are experiencing difficulties in technology development and commercialization due to the current High-Pressure Gas Safety Management Act.

This deliberation committee was prepared to comprehensively review the demand, urgency, and feasibility of demonstration in the space industry field and determine the items necessary for prior demonstration through the regulatory free zone project.

The deliberation committee was composed of experts from industry, academia, research, and government in the space field, including Daejeon City, Korea AeroSpace Administration, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KAIST, Korea Aerospace University, space companies, and Daejeon Techno Park.

We comprehensively reviewed the relevance to current regulations, the urgency of establishing safety and technical standards, the conformity with government policy needs, and the possibility of commercialization after demonstration, and derived a total of 35 demonstration items.

Daejeon City plans to establish a specific demonstration plan for the 35 demonstration items derived by the 21st and submit it to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo said, "Daejeon City is not simply changing legal provisions for successful regulatory improvement in the space industry, but is considering and preparing various aspects such as the problems of existing laws and regulations, difficulties in the industrial field, and trends in technological development." "We will strive to promote cooperation and technology exchange between companies through this regulatory free zone project and revitalize the space industry ecosystem." 

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