Experts Divided on the FAA Imposing Human Spaceflight Safety Regulations

Richard Branson floats aboard VSS Unity.
Image credit: Virgin Galactic.
One side-effect of the stop-gap spending bill passed by Congress to prevent a government shutdown last Saturday (September 30) was a three-month extension of the moratorium preventing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from regulating the safety of commercial human spaceflight systems for space tourists or privately employed astronauts.