NASA is working out how to regulate space travel and the U.S. House is working out how the FAA will fit into non-astronaut space flight. Keith Cowing of NASA Watch says he thinks together they will set up standards for training and health quality. "I think eventually it won't be much more than sitting in that seat on the airplane that is next to that door. Somebody has to make the rules and somebody has to enforce them." NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he thinks non-astronauts will have to meet the same physical and psychological examination as professional astronauts.
Cowing says there will be differences of opinion regarding the combination of commerce and government regulation. "Where this will fall in terms of what you have to do in order to fly: Somewhere along the process they will have to draw the line there....It's all going to be made up of law and regulation. There will be hearings about that!" Nelson also says his group looks at more non-astronauts in space as a national security concern.
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Non-astronaut flying aboard space shuttlePhoto: Getty Images North America