submit to reddit

spaceShip.jpgHoping for the day when you can vacation in outer space? It must be getting closer because the House of Representatives has passed guidelines for the future space tourism industry. What, you thought it would be a wild frontier?
The House bill, which passed 402-1, gives regulatory authority over human flight to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. The one dissenting vote was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
While laws already exist that regulate private sector space shuttle endeavors, this is the first law for regulating commercial space flights.
Here’s the scary part: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., chairman of the Science Committee’s space panel and sponsor of the bill, said encouraging private entrepreneurs to develop new space travel technology would have spinoffs for the Pentagon. “Our great space entrepreneurs,” he said, “are going to be developing aerospace technologies that can be put into our national security.” That’s going to help my nightmares. How about yours?