How badly will this damage Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin’s business?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...atus-hbd2m80c3
America reduces space tourists to astro-noughts
Passengers on Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’s suborbital thrill rides will not earn official status as astronauts solely for going to space, after the US government changed the rules to protect the kudos of the title.
The Federal Aviation Administration revised its criteria for awarding its prestigious Commercial Space Astronaut Wings on the day Bezos and three others flew into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and nine days after Sir Richard Branson went there and back on his Virgin Galactic rocketplane.
The change leaves open a loophole that could allow Branson, Bezos and their crewmates to still qualify, but could block their future customers, including research scientists, from earning the honour.
“In order to maintain the prestige of Commercial Space Astronaut Wings, the FAA may further refine the eligibility requirements at any time it deems appropriate,” the FAA said, amid a rapidly changing landscape for the commercial space industry.
The programme was created in 2004 after Scaled Composites, an aerospace company in California, sent SpaceShipOne, a privately crewed rocketship, across the space boundary, becoming the first to do so and earning commercial astronaut wings for co-pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie.
In 2018, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, piloted by flying ace Mark Stucky and former government astronaut CJ Sturckow, became the second…..
The programme honours those who have commanded, piloted or served as an active crew member on a privately funded spacecraft on an FAA-licensed flight above 50 miles altitude.
Crew members must now additionally “demonstrate activities during flight that were essential to public safety or contributed to human space flight safety”, potentially excluding those who ride purely for thrills.