4.0 Regulations

Early in the history of the Federation few regulations, if any, were needed to insure safe interstellar travel. It was thought that the distances involved were so vast and the vessels so few that regulation of traffic would never be needed. With the large increase in interstellar traffic following the development of the time warp drive, it became obvious that such regulations would, in fact, be necessary to prevent collisions in heavily populated space, and to insure the competency of starship pilots. A federation agency was appointed to supervise three major areas: the design safety, maintenance, and operation of space vessels; regulations governing traffic between star systems; and those governing traffic within a star system.