The FAA Changed Its Definition of ‘Astronaut’ on the Same Day Jeff Bezos Went to Space

Jeff Bezos is plenty of issues. A tax-dodging megalomaniac. A Dr. Evil lookalike. A weirdly attractive cowboy hat enthusiast. The one factor he isn’t—a minimum of so far as the Federal Aviation Administration is anxious—is an astronaut.

That’s in accordance with a set of new guidelines that the federal company issued on July 20, the identical day Amazon’s ex-CEO briefly flew a dick-shaped house shuttle into the sting of house. Specifically, the updates concern the FAA’s Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program, and the factors used to award these commanding, piloting, or engaged on privately funded spacecraft with the coveted astronaut wings badge. And Bezos, because it seems, simply doesn’t make the lower.

First, apart from flying in a craft that meets the FAA’s basic standards, the rules state that candidates have to fly greater than 50 miles above the Earth’s floor with a purpose to qualify. Bezos truly met that bar throughout his flight—in actual fact, he went a full 62 miles above sea degree. The foremost subject is that he didn’t actually do a lot throughout that flight. In the previous, we’ve seen these wings awarded to pilots, like these main the 2004 SpaceShipOne flight and the SpaceShipTwo in 2018. A yr after that, the primary girl (and non-pilot) could be awarded her wings when the FAA gave a pair to Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut teacher.

All of those figures truly did one thing on board; or because the FAA’s new steering places it, they “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.” This is a brand new requirement for folk trying to get this badge of honor, and one which Bezos and his crew fall in need of.

Because Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft was fully autonomous, there was no one accountable for actively piloting the factor, nor anybody actually performing any duties that had been key to the crew’s “public safety.” Not solely that, however the others that joined Bezos on New Shepard don’t even qualify as being members of the spacecraft’s “crew,” for the reason that FAA defines that as workers or contractor’s related to an organization concerned within the spacecraft’s launch.

This is likely to be why Blue Origin already has its personal winged pins ready to go for anybody taking a jaunt in its spacecraft. Bezos was among the many first to be awarded these pins following New Shepard’s 10-minute flight to the sting of house, to the sound of thunderous applause (and some “oooh’s” and “aaaah’s”) from all concerned. Hey, a minimum of this implies Wally Funk lastly acquired something.