{"id":3295,"date":"2021-07-12T12:15:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/?p=3295"},"modified":"2021-07-12T12:15:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:15:51","slug":"how-to-figure-out-if-youre-an-astronaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/how-to-figure-out-if-youre-an-astronaut\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Figure Out if You’re an Astronaut"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Richard Branson’s launch yesterday and Jeff Bezos’ coming up later this month, I’ve seen much discussion of whether they are astronauts.\u00a0 Some scoff at suborbital flights, but the scoffing ignores the fact that Alan Shepard’s Mercury flight was suborbital–albeit in excess of 100 miles.\u00a0 Others point to the altitude required for the Federal Aviation Administration to award astronaut wings, which is 50 statute miles.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither the Outer Space Treaty nor the Rescue and Return Agreement define the term.\u00a0 What are the criteria? Altitude alone?\u00a0 Being a pilot?\u00a0 That can’t be when we call NASA’s non-pilot mission specialists astronauts.\u00a0 Can the law help us with this question?\u00a0 Of course, it can!<\/p>\n

\"\"No opinion<\/strong>. First, I am not offering any opinion on whether either of the gentlemen launching this month qualify as astronauts.\u00a0 For one thing, I am not in possession of relevant facts, such as whether they are employees of the launch operator and whether they satisfied the FAA’s crew qualification and training requirements.\u00a0 These are details we need in order to answer the question for individuals.\u00a0 As a matter of law, the FAA’s governing statute and its own regulations do not address plain ol’ astronauts.\u00a0 As a matter of what appears to be promotional policy, the FAA awards astronaut wings of no legal effect.\u00a0 But, oh, the glory.<\/p>\n

Legal Criteria.<\/strong>\u00a0 When Congress clarified 51 USC ch. 509 (popularly referred to as the Commercial Space Launch Act), it told the FAA there are legally three types of people on board FAA licensed launches:\u00a0 crew, space flight participants, and government astronauts.<\/a> According to the legal definitions, a person may only be one of these .<\/p>\n

Crew<\/em>.\u00a0 Chapter 509 and the FAA’s regulations<\/a> implementing it define “crew” as an employee or independent contractor of an FAA-licensed launch operator, where the employee performs activities in the course of that employment directly relating to the launch, reentry, or other operation of or in a launch vehicle or reentry vehicle that carries human beings<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Space flight participant<\/em>.\u00a0 Congress and therefore the FAA define this person as “an individual, who is not crew or a government astronaut, carried within a launch vehicle or reentry vehicle.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Government astronaut<\/em>.\u00a0 For a person to be a government astronaut, he or she must satisfy a multitude of criteria.\u00a0 A government astronaut must be designated as such by NASA.\u00a0 He must be on board the FAA-licensed launch or reentry vehicle in the course of his employment, “which may include performance of activities directly relating to the launch, reentry, or other operation of the launch vehicle or reentry vehicle.”\u00a0 Note that this person’s duties might not<\/em> include operating the vehicle.\u00a0 Lastly, to be a government astronaut this person must be a federal employee, engaged in a federal function, or an international partner astronaut. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Before passage of the new definition of “government astronaut” in 2015, NASA personnel on board an FAA licensed launch were space flight participants under the law.\u00a0 They didn’t work for the launch operator and so couldn’t be called crew.\u00a0 That unfortunate nomenclature has since been remedied.)<\/p>\n

Promoting the industry<\/strong>.\u00a0 So, legally, if you’re on an FAA-licensed launch and don’t work for the government, it’s hard to be called an astronaut.\u00a0 However, some of you can still get your astronaut wings.\u00a0 This is because the FAA, in a fit of good cheer and whimsy and in reliance on its statutory promotional authority, first awarded astronaut wings to SpaceShipOne’s pilot when Scaled Composites won the Ansari X Prize back in 2004.\u00a0 As far as I can tell, these wings come with no privileges or responsibilities, and the criteria are not codified in regulations.\u00a0 Even so, the FAA has non-legal criteria and states them as follows.<\/p>\n

To be eligible for Astronaut Wings, nominees have to meet the following criteria and submit an application to the FAA:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\u2013 Must be [on] an FAA licensed launch;<\/em><\/div>\n
\u2013 Must meet the requirements for flight crew qualifications and training under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 460; and<\/em><\/div>\n
\u2013 Must demonstrate flight beyond 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth as flight crew on an FAA licensed or permitted launch reentry vehicle.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Whether anyone famous–or even anyone you know–qualifies as an astronaut will be left as an exercise for the reader.<\/p>\n

Another good exercise for the reader would be to wonder whether the FAA has identified where outer space starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Richard Branson’s launch yesterday and Jeff Bezos’ coming up later this month, I’ve seen much discussion of whether they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Figure Out if You're an Astronaut - 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