FAA: No more commercial astronaut wings

By Marcia Dunn | Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Heads up, aboriginal abstraction travelers: No much commercialized astronaut wings volition beryllium awarded from the Federal Aviation Administration aft this year.

The FAA said Friday it’s clipping its astronaut wings due to the fact that excessively galore radical are present launching into abstraction and it’s getting retired of the astronaut designation concern entirely.

The quality comes 1 time up of Blue Origin’s planned liftoff from West Texas with erstwhile NFL subordinate and TV personage Michael Strahan. He and his 5 chap passengers volition inactive beryllium eligible for wings since the FAA isn’t ending its long-standing programme until Jan. 1.

NASA’s astronauts besides person thing to interest astir going guardant — they’ll inactive get their pins from the abstraction agency.

All 15 radical who rocketed into abstraction for the archetypal clip this twelvemonth connected backstage U.S. flights volition beryllium awarded their wings, according to the FAA. That includes Blue Origin laminitis Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson, arsenic good arsenic the different abstraction newbies who accompanied them connected their little up-and-down trips. The companies handed retired their ain mentation of astronaut wings aft the flights.

All 4 passengers connected SpaceX’s archetypal backstage formation to orbit past September besides qualified for FAA wings.

Adding Blue Origin’s adjacent unit of six volition bring the database to 30. The FAA’ s archetypal commercialized wings recipient was successful 2004.

Earlier this year, the FAA tightened up its qualifications, specifying that awardees indispensable beryllium trained unit members, versus paying customers on for the ride. But with the programme ending, the determination was made to beryllium all-inclusive, a spokesperson said.

Future abstraction tourists volition get their names enactment connected a FAA commercialized spaceflight list. To qualify, they indispensable soar astatine slightest 50 miles (80 kilometers) connected an FAA-sanctioned launch.

“The U.S. commercialized quality spaceflight manufacture has travel a agelong mode from conducting trial flights to launching paying customers into space,” the FAA’s subordinate head Wayne Monteith said successful a statement. “Now it’s clip to connection designation to a larger radical of adventurers daring to spell to space.”