FAA Issues Guidelines for Space Tourists

Melchor Antunano, Director of the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, says that for suborbital flights, one proposal is to have a passenger fill out a medical questionnaire, then leave it up to the spaceship operator to decide if that person is capable of withstanding the journey. A paying customer may need to sign a consent form that he or she accepts the risks. A suborbital flight would subject passengers to acceleration and deceleration stresses, as well as the potential for an explosive decompression in flight

Antunano said that orbital flights should require another step, such as having a space tourist undergo some form of pre-flight testing. An orbital flight would not only subject a tourist to takeoff and reentry forces, but could also subject her or him to cosmic rays and radiation. There could also be medical effects from prolonged microgravity.

The FAA says that additional rules, still to come, will help promote the emerging commercial human space flight industry, putting it on a solid regulatory footing.