Commercial Space Travel Exempt From FAA Oversight... For Now

Law Protects Those Who Take Risk Of Early Flights
In the latest commercial US space race, aviation safety regulators occupy a new niche... it's hands off, until someone gets killed.
Federal Aviation Administration officials have a unique relationship with the emerging space-tourism industry, which was discussed at a recent gathering of air and space lawyers this month in Memphis, TN according to USA Today.
"We're going to kill some people," says Tracey Knutson, a lawyer who has advised the FAA and who moderated a panel discussion on the topic. "The question is how the relationship then changes."
Laura Montgomery, senior attorney in the FAA's Office of the Chief Counsel, said once somebody dies, "we then have the authority to act and we would." Until then, Congress "told us to keep our mitts off."
Congress, in an effort to allow commercial competition among potential commercial space carriers, has exempted the space industry from FAA oversight, and protects space bound private citizens.
The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 treats the industry more like mountain climbing adventurers who are exploring new routes, or like visionaries who are learning from fatal mistakes.
FAA officials agree that participating passenger in commercial space flight will have to sign waivers explaining their risks, and agree not to sue the federal government for the thrill of space's weightlessness, should they be killed.
"This is an ultra-hazardous business," Patti Grace Smith, the FAA's associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation told attendees at an American Bar Association forum on air and space law. She said part of the agency's effort to promote the industry's success means giving it room to fail.
The FAA however is restricted and can't provide safety regulations by law until 2012, unless there is a fatal flight accident. FAA will watch launches and space flight programs closely, promising to work with the companies involved, according to government officials. Read more>>

Source: Aero-News Network.

Risky space tourism gets a boost from a hands-off FAA

By Robert Davis, USA TODAY
MEMPHIS — In the latest space race — to lift paying customers out of Earth's atmosphere — aviation safety regulators occupy a new niche: They are promoting an industry expected to suffer deadly accidents instead of applying strict safety rules.
Federal Aviation Administration officials detailed their unique relationship with the emerging space-tourism industry for a gathering of air and space lawyers this month.
Several firms are racing to serve people willing to pay a steep price for the privilege of floating briefly in space, perhaps in as little as two years. Some scientists believe commercial competition will fuel rapid development of space travel technology.
In the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, Congress told the FAA to treat the industry more like an adventure business than an air carrier. The law protects the rights of those who wish to be among the first private citizens to go into space — likening them to visionaries and adventurers who knowingly take other risks like climbing mountains — while giving the people who operate the new types of unproven spacecraft the scientific latitude to learn from their first fatal mistakes.
"This is an ultra-hazardous business," Patti Grace Smith, the FAA's associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation told attendees at an American Bar Association forum on air and space law. She said part of the agency's effort to promote the industry's success means giving it room to fail.
By law, the FAA cannot impose safety regulations on the industry until 2012 unless there is a serious accident in flight or if the agency — which will attend every launch and is working closely with industry professionals — detects a safety threat that companies refuse to fix.
Read more>>

Int'l space station ticket price climbs

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 18, 8:13 PM ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - When it comes to complaining about poor exchange rates for the U.S. dollar, American tourists traveling to Europe have nothing on tourists headed into space. The cost of flying to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship has increased from $25 million earlier this year to $30 million. Trips planned in 2008 and 2009 will cost $40 million.
"It's mostly because of the fallen dollar," Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, said Wednesday. His company brokers the trips with Russia's space agency.
A U.S. dollar currently is worth about 25 1/2 Russian rubles, compared with 32 rubles in 2002.
Five space tourists have paid $20 million to $25 million to visit the space station via the Soyuz vehicles through trips arranged by Space Adventures. The company announced Wednesday that two more Soyuz seats have been purchased for tourists to fly in 2008 and 2009.
Anderson said the space tourists flying in the two new seats likely would be an American and an Asian, but he offered no details. Prospective space tourists must put down a 20 percent deposit, pass physical examinations and later undergo training at a Russian space facility.
About a dozen prospective space tourists are in the process of reserving flights to the space station, even as the number of available seats on the three-man Soyuz vehicles is likely to diminish after space shuttles are grounded in 2010.
NASA is going to rely on the Soyuz vehicles to deliver astronauts to the space station between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the expected first manned flight in 2015 of the next-generation spacecraft, Orion, which NASA hopes takes astronauts back to the moon by 2020. Additionally, the three-member space station crew, consisting of U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, is expected to double in size in 2009.
"We're certainly working out ways to get more seats," Anderson said. "With the competition at that point, it becomes more difficult."
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On the Net:Space Adventures at http://www.spaceadventures.com/