Space tourists may not fly anywhere: no license has been granted yet

Virgin Galactic is currently the most prepared company planning to engage in space tourism. This company has a quite ready-to-fly spacecraft, which passed (and quite successfully) preliminary tests, has its own spaceport, and there is Richard Branson, the head of Virgin, who does not limit his brainchild in funds.



Thanks to Branson's reputation and the company's seeming potential, about 700 people have already paid $ 250,000 for a ticket to one of the future flights to near-Earth space.

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However, the desire to fly into space for a civilian may still remain a desire - so far, no company has received a single license for the right to carry out a space galley. And a special body, the United States Federal Aviation Administration, should issue such a document.

What is the difficulty?

Documents to obtain such a license began to be prepared by Branson back in 2004. In the past, in 2013, the company announced its intention to carry out the first flights in the framework of the space tourism program in 2014, but without a license, it is simply impossible to fly with civilians on board. Branson himself will not be able to fly on his own ship (by itself, with the pilot), if his company does not have the appropriate license.



Now on the shoulders of officials from the Federal Aviation Administration is a rather heavy burden: if something happens to the first (and any subsequent) flight, the responsibility will be not only on Virgin Galactic, but also on the officials who approved the activities of this company, and gave her a license.



The prepared package of documents was submitted for consideration by officials in August last year, and according to the law, consent or refusal to obtain a license must be given no later than 6 months from the date of submission of documents. In other words, all this should be known already in February.



The decision of the officials will create a precedent for other companies, including XCOR Aerospace, SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are developing their own spacecraft / stratospheric balloons.



One of the well-known specialists in "space tourism", Professor Dirk Gibson (University of New Mexico) claims that he will be "very surprised if someone flies this year. Most likely it is worth talking about flights in 2015 ".



The difficulty also lies in the fact that there is no regulatory policy for private space flights. The same US Federal Aviation Administration, starting work on creating the relevant rules in 2004, hoped for "thousands of test" flights by 2012, on the basis of which it was possible to write the relevant rules. And there were only 3 such flights, and all were carried out by the Branson company. Accordingly, the data for the introduction of any real rules and mechanisms is simply not enough.



But no matter what, the leadership of Virgin Galactic was confident that all the necessary documents and procedures would be ready in the next few months. Well, such a pragmatic person like Branson (he didn’t become a billionaire due to romantic dreams of space for all) would hardly invest tens of millions of dollars in a venture whose fate would hang in the balance.



Well, we will and we hope so, if we want to visit a similar ship in the role of a space tourist. I would also like to hope that the price of a ticket of 250 thousand US dollars will still be somewhat reduced in the case of the widespread practice of space tourism.



Via cbc