The US Federal Aviation
Administration has published its
draft
recommendations for commercial space travel.
The 123-page document lists includes directives on telling passengers how
many trips the craft has made into orbit, and any problems it has suffered.
Passengers must also be reminded that the craft has not been certified by the
government.
Space tourists should be given pre-flight training to handle emergencies such
as a fire or loss of cabin pressure, and how to use the emergency exits.
Passengers may also be subject to the no-fly list currently operating in the
US which is designed to stop terrorists boarding flights.
"New technologies carry new risks. Nonetheless, Congress recognises that
private industry has begun to develop commercial launch vehicles capable of
carrying human beings into space, and greater private investment in these
efforts will stimulate the nation's commercial space transportation industry as
a whole," said the report.
Richard
Branson's Virgin
Galactic has begun the process of building the world's first
commercial spaceport in New Mexico. The entrepreneur
expects flights to begin in 2008, and 75 people have already paid the $200,000
fee.
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