FAA Says Jeff Bezos Counts as an Astronaut After All

Citing the rise of area tourism, the Federal Aviation Administration has determined to finish its Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program, the regulator introduced in a press release final Friday. Launched in 2004, this system was supposed to carry consideration to industrial area flight and to certify the pilots of economic spacecraft. The FAA says that is now not mandatory and that people who attain area will, as an alternative of getting astronaut wings, get recognition on its website.

The FAA had tweaked this system earlier this 12 months, saying industrial astronaut wings will solely be handed out to people who “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.” Space vacationers are largely passive contributors throughout their flights (Blue Origin and SpaceX function totally autonomous spacecraft, whereas Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane requires pilots), and time-in-space is measured in minutes, so awarding them with particular astronaut pins appeared a bit a lot.

That adjustment had meant that Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, and Star Trek actor William Shatner, amongst others, wouldn’t get their astronaut wings regardless of flying to altitudes in extra of 60 miles (100 kilometers), the internationally acknowledged boundary of area. The regulator is now backtracking on this—or at the least for area flights that occurred this 12 months—saying it is going to award industrial astronaut wings to anybody who participated in an FAA-licensed area launch in 2021. This will embody the six crewmembers of the Blue Origin launch from this previous Saturday, in addition to Bezos, Shatner, Branson, and others.

In addition to the 15 people who journeyed to area this 12 months, the FAA can be handing out honorary awards of economic astronaut wings to Peter Siebold and the late Michael Alsbury, each of whom take a look at piloted Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo car, VSS Enterprise. Alsbury was killed through the tragic October 2014 take a look at flight, whereas Siebold was critically injured.

But that’s it—no extra industrial astronaut wings for anybody beginning in 2022, as this system, having fulfilled its goal, will formally be over, the FAA stated.

That the FAA has ended this program makes full sense, particularly given the place the area tourism business seems to be headed. The FAA shouldn’t be handing out particular awards and certificates to each schmuck who will get strapped to a rocket. That ought to now be as much as the businesses themselves, which is what seems to be happening.

More: Webb Telescope Now Fueled Up as Much-Anticipated Launch Approaches.