LOS ANGELES -Thrill seekers are plunking down six figures to ride rockets that haven't even been built yet, and a new airline called Virgin Galactic promises to be up and soaring in the next three years.
Still, the budding space tourism industry faces a myriad of safety concerns -in the sky and on the ground -that must be resolved before any paying passenger takes off.
The rules that will govern the industry in the United States are being discussed by federal regulators and rocket developers, and legislation is still before Congress.
The pace of negotiations and the ultimate shape of the regulations could determine whether the sky-high enthusiasm for space tourism -fueled by the historic suborbital flights of SpaceShipOne -grows or wanes, especially among investors.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion C. Blakey this week visited Xcor Aerospace, a rocket developer just down the Mojave Airport flight line from SpaceShipOne's home. She talked of partnership with the new industry and said it was important for the United States to be the world leader.
She made clear, however, that broad safety issues are the agency's top priority.
Our first concern will be the safety of the uninvolved public
making sure that as this grows and develops that we're doing everything we can to protect the folks on the ground to make sure that the people who go into space understand the risks
she said. It will be a risky business for many years to come
no doubt.
The FAA, for several years, has been studying what the average passenger would face from G-force and psychological factors, and what type of medical fitness he or she would require, Blakey said.
There is also a question of what information a passenger should have, about safety records, for example, to assess risk and make a meaningful informed-consent statement.
Patti Grace Smith, associate administrator for the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, indicated passenger awareness is one of the hurdles in the way of making space travel as routine as aviation.
The kind of threshold that we will have to figure out how to achieve is the cognizance issue: How do we know that they understand the risk that they are taking? How do we know that they understand what they're doing? she said.
Xcor President Jeff Greason said talks with the government have come far but there is much work ahead on the regulatory front.
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Marion C. Blakey, administrator of commercial space transportation for the Federal Aviation Administration, right, speaks as associate administrator Patti Grace Smith, left, and Jeff Greason, president of XCOR Aerospace, listen during a briefing at the XC
