The law that set up the current regulatory regime (or lack thereof) went into effect the same year that Scaled Composites, an outfit in California's Mojave Desert, won a $10 million X Prize by launching the first privately funded piloted spacecraft into suborbital space twice in less than two weeks. The accomplishment led many observers to believe commercial human spaceflight was only a few years away. Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson and using an upsized version of Scaled's suborbital rocket plane, originally aimed to begin flying space tourists in 2007.
But it turned out to be a much longer wait. Virgin Galactic's rocket plane, called SpaceShipTwo, flew its first commercial mission to the edge of space in June after a series of suborbital test flights, including one that carried Branson himself. Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, flew its first fare-paying passengers on a suborbital spaceflight in 2021, two years ahead of Virgin.
SpaceX's privately owned Dragon crew capsule launched to the International Space Station with two NASA astronauts in 2020. In 2021, SpaceX launched the first fully private orbital spaceflight without the participation of NASA. The Dragon spacecraft can fly missions to the space station lasting up to seven months, while Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin give passengers just a taste of microgravity lasting a few minutes, albeit at a lower cost.
NASA’s role to play
NASA has a stake in whatever happens with the FAA human spaceflight regulations. The space agency spent millions of dollars and took years to certify the safety of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft for astronauts, and it chairs a flight-readiness review before each NASA crew mission on Dragon flying to the International Space Station.
The time-consuming certification work gives NASA confidence in the safety of Dragon capsules and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, clearing the way for those vehicles to ferry government-employed astronauts into orbit.
NASA would eventually like to buy seats for its astronauts on fully commercial missions without extensive NASA oversight, either on launches to suborbital space with companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, or on a privately managed orbital flight to the ISS or a future commercial space station. That would free up NASA resources spent on certification and oversight for use in other parts of the agency.
For example, Axiom Space has flown two fully commercial private astronaut missions to the ISS, with plans for a third trip in the coming months. Axiom contracted with SpaceX to use its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft and worked with NASA to arrange for access to the space station. But Axiom and SpaceX held the final authority to launch, not NASA.
Those flights, commanded by former NASA astronauts now working for Axiom, flew paying passengers to the space station for stays lasting one to two weeks. Foreign governments like Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also paid for seats on Axiom missions to secure a flight opportunity for their astronauts.
It is conceivable that NASA might want to fly an astronaut or a research scientist (like the payload specialists who flew on space shuttle missions) on a short-duration flight through Axiom or another company. For that to happen, changes are needed in the regulatory regime for US commercial human spaceflight, the space agency says.
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