[lucasjung]

They do need a license to launch, and such licenses are very common: commercial satellite launches happen all of the time. The FAA needs to be involved because those rockets pass through controlled airspace on the way up and the FAA needs to take measures to keep aircraft away from them. This is news because, for the first time, a commercial entity is going to attempt to bring something back from orbit instead of just sending it up and leaving it there.

Reading between the lines, SpaceShipOne apparently didn't need a re-entry license, probably because they never achieved orbit and so their return didn't meet some technical criteria to be considered a "re-entry" by the FAA. They probably had some sort of special license from the FAA, though.