(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]