Space Tourism
Around the 1950's after world war 2 is when the idea of space travel really went into account. According to a space tourism website "spacefuture.com" they lay down an exact timeline of space tourism events. However just 13 years later in 1963 USAF X-15 reaches world record altitude of 354,200 ft. That record was later broken by spaceship-one 39 years later. Ford was one of the first American companies that was making contributions to aeronautical designs at the time but since the cold war, they lost faith and ceased operations. Since then there have been many designs made for passenger vehicles to travel out of our atmosphere. Today you can travel to space for as cheap as 20 million."Despite reluctance from NASA, Russia made American businessman Dennis Tito the worlds first space tourist. Tito flew into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket that arrived at the international space station on April 30, 2001." (Bonsor 2000)
The FAA is aware of how private human space traveling is an unparalleled adventure. Considering how new personal space flight is and with very little or even no regulations at all, rules must be made as we leap into a future with technology that will help make space travel possible. "Congress mandated the regulations in the commercial space launnch amendments act of 2004 because public space travel is a fledgling industry. lawmakers called for a phased approach in regulated commercial human space flight - with regulatory standard evolving as the industry matures." (David 2006). It is noted by the FAA that the regulations require launch vehicle operators to provide certain safety-related information and identify what an operator must do to conduct a licensed launch with a human on board. (David 2006) These regulations were developed around 1984 with the commercial space launch act of 1984. "The act authorizes the department of transportation, The FAA, office of commercial space transportation (AST) to oversee and authorize and regulate both launches and reentries of vehicles and operations." (FAA 2015)
I think space tourism is headed in the right direction. I am a firm believer in space traveling in the future and I truly do believe whether it be in the near 50 years or even 200 years from now, that human civilization will have surpassed all previous failures at any attempt to travel the universe. I believe that if we as sovereign nations, and if the governments who are the most influential global leaders today can keep the faith of traveling the universe together, then we will all one day be able to seek life outside of earths atmosphere. Surely this will take extreme amount of resources, funding, inspired engineers and scientists, and countless amount of time for this to all happen but I have faith in a dream that people will one day travel the universe.
There are many organizations that participate in creating a way to make space tourism feasible. The FAA does particiapte in regulating this newly introduced industry. There are several space projects such as Bigelow Aerospace, Space island group, X-Prize, space adventures, and even Hilton Hotels! I haven't made any phone calls but their sites offer applications for employment with positions available to those who want to see space tourism become a reality.
References:
Kevin Bonsor "How Space Tourism Works" 20 November 2000.
HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-tourism.htm> 24 March 2016
Office of Commercial Space Transportation Regulations. (2015, October 26). Retrieved March 24, 2016, from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/
Space Tourism - The Story So Far. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2016, from http://www.spacefuture.com/tourism/timeline.shtml
David, L. (2006, December 21). FAA Sets Guidelines for Space Travel. Retrieved March 24, 2016, from http://www.space.com/3290-faa-sets-guidelines-space-travel.html
