US Draw Up Rules for Space Tourism

AsiNisiMasa writes "The BBC reports that the United States Federal Aviation Administration has drafted a report proposing some regulations regarding space tourism. Among the rules is a set of guidelines to prevent terrorists from gaining access to the space ships in order to use them as weapons. Many of the other regulations are similar to those regarding regular commercial flights, including safety advice precluding the flights. From the article: 'Space tourists should also be given pre-flight training to handle emergency situations such as a loss of cabin pressure or fire. However, the FAA has so far left any medical requirements in the hands of the tourist, who should decide themselves if they are fit to fly.' The final report will affect enterprises such as Sir Richard Branson's SpaceShipOne."

Comments

What to do in an emergency!

[anti-human 1]

'Space tourists should also be given pre-flight training to handle emergency situations such as a loss of cabin pressure or fire.'

...Hold your breath?

Re:What to do in an emergency!

[lxs]

-ding-dong-
  Good evening passengers, please take a look at our charming colleague Betty who will demonstrate emergency procedures for you...

...In case of fire please break the window next to you. Without oxygen the fire will be over quickly, which brings us to loss of cabin pressure. In the case of loss of cabin pressure, please assume the bloated expression demonstrated by Betty, stay calm, and wait until all your bodily fluids boil off.
In case of a crash, make sure you wear your swim-vest with integrated whistle, even though both are useless when we smash into the moon.
Thank you fo listening and enjoy your flight

i wonder...

[know1]

what the deal is with the law...like so many miles out is international waters for ships and you can have sex cruises and whatnot. How many miles up would you have to be before you can start doing that line of coke off the hookers ass

this one should be included in regular aviation

[arabagast]

"Companies should give passengers safety advice including the number of flights the spacecraft has been on and any problems they have experienced with the craft, according to further recommendations in the report."

This could actually be more handy in a regular aviation situation. Being a tad scared of flying, I would love to know how big my chances are :)

Stewardess: You have a 95% chance of surviving this flight with our current maintenance record, please take your seat and have a nice flight, sir.

So, is it...

[danro]

...time to declare a "War On Cars", yet?

Precluding the flights?

[achurch]

Many of the other regulations are similar to those regarding regular commercial flights, including safety advice precluding the flights.

I knew space flight was dangerous, but . . . wow.

(Somebody's gotta take the karma hit for this, might as well be me.)

Just how far

[denissmith]

Just where does US jurisdiction end? I plan on traveling to the belt of Orion next summer, will US law apply there?

Re:Old News...

[Azrael43]

This was reported a couple of weeks ago. Why are we reporitng on this again?

You must be new here...

Terrorists?

[Farrside]

What will they try to do, blow up the orbiter? Given how many airplanes terrorists have destroyed -vs- how many they haven't, even if they managed to double their efficiency for spacecraft I think their average will still be below NASA's.

Re:Easier to screen

[sconeu]

they have to blow up the earth

So obviously they will be profiling Martians, and looking for Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators!

Re:Useless

[DerekLyons]

I fail to see the relevance of the US drawing up rules for this. It's not like the passengers care where they launch *from*,

There is more to space tourism than passengers - there's also the space craft operators, the airframe manufacturers, the insurers, etc... etc... And a bunch of them are in the US and want a cleanly defined playing field rather than a chaotic mess of rules arising from varied state regulations and court cases.

These rules from the FAA provide exactly that.

Thus any space tourism entrepreneur who dont like the US rules can just launch from another country.

Look around and note the up and coming providers for suborbital flight - there isn't but one serious contender outside of the US. The heavyweights are all in the US. The biggest single market is in the US.

There's also big issues with technology transfer and export regulation, and non-profliferation... It's virtually a certainty that any sub orbital provider will develop in the US or the rest of the West. It's almost impossible for a US based company (or any company based in the West) to go to some third world nation for a launch.

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[MutantHamster]

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