(a) NASA shall prepare an environmental impact statement for actions that are likely to significantly impact the quality of the human environment, including actions for which an environmental assessment demonstrates that significant environmental impacts will potentially occur which will not be reduced or eliminated by changes to the proposed action or mitigation of its potentially significant environmental impacts. Whether an impact rises to the level of “significant” is a matter of NASA's expert judgment. An environmental impact statement shall be prepared and published in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 4332(C) and § 1216.601.
(b) NASA actions normally requiring an environmental impact statement include:
(1) Development and operation of new NASA-developed launch vehicles or space transportation systems.
(2) Management, including recovery, transport, and curation, of sample returns to Earth from solar system bodies (such as asteroids, comets, planets, dwarf planets, and planetary moons) that would receive a Restricted Earth Return categorization. NASA requires such a mission to include additional measures to ensure any potential indigenous life form would be contained so it could not adversely impact humans or Earth's environment.
(3) Substantial construction projects expected to result in significant adverse effect(s) on the quality of the human and natural environment when such construction and its effects are not within the scope of an existing master plan.
(c) During the process of preparing an environmental impact statement, NASA:
(1) Will obtain the comments of:
(i) Any Federal agency that has jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to any environmental impact of the action or project at hand or is authorized to develop and enforce environmental standards that govern the action or project at hand.
(ii) Appropriate State, Tribal, and local agencies that are authorized to develop and enforce environmental standards.
(2) May request the comments of:
(i) State, Tribal, or local governments that may be affected by the proposed action.
(ii) Any agency that has requested it receive statements on actions of the kind proposed.
(iii) The non-Federal project sponsor, if any.
(iv) The public, including by affirmatively soliciting comments in a manner designed to inform those persons or organizations who may be interested in or affected by the proposed action.
(d) The process of obtaining and requesting comments in paragraph (c) of this section may be undertaken at any time that is reasonable in the process of preparing the environmental impact statement. NASA will ensure that the process of obtaining and requesting comments, and NASA's analysis of and response to those comments, does not cause NASA to violate the congressionally mandated deadline for completion of an environmental impact statement.
(e) NASA will address any substantive comments received consistent with paragraph (c) of this section in the environmental impact statement. Based on substantive comments and/or recommendations, NASA may consider such responses by:
(1) Modifying alternatives, including the proposed action.
(2) Developing and evaluating alternatives not previously considered.
(3) Supplementing, improving, or modifying analyses, to include consideration of science or literature not previously considered.
(4) Making factual corrections.
(5) The agency may provide brief rationale for taking no action, such as:
(i) The comment is outside the scope of what is being proposed.
(ii) There is no cause-effect relationship between the actions the agency is proposing and the issue raised and/or recommendation made.
(iii) The commenter misinterpreted the information provided.
(iv) The recommendation made does not comply with applicable laws or regulations and/or is not technically or economically feasible to implement.
(v) The comment was received outside the timeframe provided for such comments.