FAA Starts Planning Commercial Space Travel Rules

Commercial space travel is predicted to take off in the next few years, and government aviation industry officials are planning to lay out the rules

Commercial space travel is predicted to take off in the next few years, and government aviation industry officials are planning to lay out the rules such as keeping a space rocket and airline jets from colliding, how to prepare patients before a flight, and other operational considerations.

Those challenges are to be addressed by a partnership between the Federal Aviation Administration and universities, as well as industry associations.

“If the plans of people like Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic are accurate, in the next three to five years there will be very frequent space tourism launches,” said Scott Hubbard, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.

“That means you've got to clear the air space and if it's very frequent you've got to be sure to manage that together with airplanes going by,” Hubbard said.

The federal agency picked New Mexico State University to head the new unit called Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation.

The Las Cruces-based university will partner with seven other universities to perform research work in key areas like launch operations, air traffic management, and the rules and regulations of space commerce.

Private companies SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman will serve as industry partners.

The FAA is trying to jumpstart the fledgling space flight industry while making sure its operations will be safe enough to send average people to space and for private firms to send cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

Congress approved legislation in 2004 giving the FAA the mandate to regulate commercial space travel. It was designed to allow a deregulated industry but the FAA is tasked to start with a phase-by-phase approach to the safe operation of space flights.

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Sunday August 22 2010, 8:31 AM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0