Commercial Space

For the first few decades of space flight, the only way that you could get into space was if you were put there by a government that had the capability, basically the USA or USSR and then Russia. There were some very rich people that were able to spend millions of dollars on a single flight to the International space station. While these passengers were technically space tourists, they were still dependent on governments to get them into space and safely back to earth. That all changed in 2004 when a ship designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melville was able to launch into space and capture the Ansari X prize. I was able to see the ship when it was on its way to the Smithsonian at Oshkosh. I sat in on every talk given about it and even through some luck was able to shake Sir Richard Branson's hand.

Like I said, there were a few billionaires that were able to get rides on Russian rockets for many millions of dollars, but it wasn't until Rutan was able to get his ship into space did the idea of a commercial space tourist industry begin. Since then there have been many people with ideas, but it is Elon Musk's Space X and Branson's Virgin Galactic that have been the only ones to produce a ship that can get into space and back. There have been some hurdles, Branson's company has had some accidents and deaths, and Musk's failures have been on the news many times. But if you compare the meticulous ways that they are going about space flight as they did with early flight, early spaceflight will be thousands of times safer than early flight was.  

The one thing about rapid expansion of technology, the rules and regulations can not keep up. Commercial space flight has its own part of the Federal Regulations, but if you look at the site you will see that there isn't much there. Basically the only thing that the government has to say about is that you have to have a permit to launch or retrieve things from space. (Federal Register, 2016) However there was an Office of Commercial Space Travel started in 1984, not real sure what they were around for but they have been shuffled around through the Department of Transportation until they ended up in the FAA and I assume that's where they will stay as the industry takes off and we see more regulations.(Office of Commercial Space Transportation, n.d)

I really believe that we are looking at the start of the commercial space industry. If you look at it there are many parallels between the start of commercial aviation and the start of commercial space travel. While things are going incredibly slow, the only ones that are making money are taking government payloads (not unlike the early Air mail routes) I believe that there will be a major interest in the near future. 

Being a pilot on a commercial space flight will not be an easy gig to get in the beginning. Right now Virgin Galactic is taking pilots from the other Virgin Airlines and training them, but there have been some ideas of what kinds of requirements they would be looking for. Things like 3000 hours and experience in many different aircraft are a must.  (Belfiore, 2009)

Belfiore, M. (2009, February). license to thrill | space | air & space magazine. Retrieved from http://www.airspacemag.com/space/license-to-thrill-46607056/?no-ist

Federal Register. (2016, February 10). eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?gp=&SID=1f58495405665a030c05e44bca5a8591&mc=true&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title14/14chapterIII.tpl

Office of Commercial Space Transportation. (n.d.). Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/