Discussion: Private Spaceflight Bill Passes

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (H.R. 5382) on Wednesday, which will allow private citizens to fly on suborbital launch vehicles at their own risk. Backers of this legislation said that it was necessary to encourage space tourism companies, like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, to risk making flights in the United States. Those opposed to the bill were concerned that regulators would have to stand by until someone actually got hurt before changing the rules.

What do you think about this story? Post your comments below.

[StarLab]

Who do the gov't agencies think they are, meddling in private business! :angry:

[aeolus]

The MSNBC menu has a listing of all the recent spaceflight stories under the heading:

"The new space race"

I like that. It makes me smile.

[Sphinx]

my favorite line is towards the end of the article where it says something like the passing of this bill shows that congress doesn't want to be a barrier. This is exciting as the article also stated the public has 8 years of free experimentation. I don't know what more freedom private investors/inventors/startup company's could want. I'm excited to see who funds what in the first quarter of next year. If anyone has a site to cite shedding any light on this information please post it below.

[Greg]

This is good news for everyone. Passing the legislation essentialy fails to hinder the progress of commercial space development. It makes much more likely that interesting things will happen in near orbit and potentially beyond in our lifetimes. The best offense the opposition could come up with is that lives will be lost and that they will be back again to rewrite legislation as a result. Pretty weak stuff since it is fully expected that lives will be lost. Many gallant lives were lost in the pioneering days of aviation and the Apollo program, but that didn't lead to a wholesale rewrite of congressional legislation. I was somewhat surprised that the opposition was able to put up such a good fight that nearly got this bill blocked on several occasions. I think that we can expect these near space pioneers to be resonsible enough not to crash a sip full of rocket fuel in the middle of a densely populated area.