According to the American agency, this name can be defined as people who “during the flight perform activities for public safety or contribute to the safety of space flights”
They were the first two men to make private space tourist flights. But they cannot yet be considered astronauts. We are talking about Jeff Bezos e Richard Branson, which in recent weeks, together with the crews of theirs Blue Origin e Virgin Galactic, have completed the first tourist flights to space (here the tale of Bezos’ flight and of that of Branson). Many have described them as the first private astronauts, but the American aviation administration, the body that oversees the civil aviation sector, said “no”.
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The new definition of a commercial astronaut
Tuesday 20 July, just the day of launch of Blue Origin of the patron of Amazon (and the same day in which the historic moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 is remembered) are some changes have been introduced in the definition of “Commercial astronaut”. This too can be defined as a historic moment, because since 2004 no changes have been made. To be called a commercial astronaut, the FAA explains, a person must first reach 80km away from the surface of the Earth. On this first point, no problem, because both Bezos and Branson have exceeded this threshold: respectively they reached 106 and 88 km in height (to find out more: all the details of Bezos’ flight e in Branson).
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The motivation of the novelties
The question comes to the second part of the definition: an astronaut, in fact, “during the flight must perform activities that are essential for public safety, or contribute to the safety of space flights”. And here the “dream” of the two billionaires ends, because we saw them just enjoying the moment together with their flight mates in their launches into space (with Bezos they flew the younger person e older never been in space) but without going to work for the safety of others. Finally, the FAA explained that these innovations were introduced to “be more in line with its role in protecting public safety during commercial space flights”.
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July 25, 2021 (change July 25, 2021 | 11:32 am)
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