![]() Patti Grace Smith presents SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill the department's first commercial astronaut wings. | |
Occupation | |
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Occupation type | Profession |
Description | |
Competencies | See astronaut training |
Fields of employment | Space exploration |
Related jobs | Astronaut |
A commercial astronaut is a person who has commanded, piloted, or served as an active crew member of a privately funded spacecraft. This is distinct from an otherwise non-government astronaut, for example Charlie Walker, who flies while representing a non-government corporation but with funding or training or both coming from government sources.
The definition of "astronaut" and the criteria for determining who has achieved human spaceflight vary. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines spaceflight as any flight over 100 kilometers (62 mi) of altitude. In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) are eligible to be awarded astronaut wings. Until 2003, professional space travelers were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, whether by the military or by civilian space agencies. However, with the first sub-orbital flight by the privately funded Scaled Composites Tier One program in 2004, the commercial astronaut category was created. [1] The next commercial program to achieve sub-orbital flight was Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo program in 2018. [2] Criteria for commercial astronaut status in other countries have yet to be made public.
By 2021, with the substantial increase in commercial spaceflight—with the first suborbital passenger flight by both Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin's New Shepard in July, and with SpaceX's first orbital private spaceflight completed on September 18, 2021—the roles and functions of people going to space are expanding. Criteria for the broader designation "astronaut" has become open to interpretation. Even in the US alone, the "FAA, U.S. military and NASA all have different definitions of what it means to be designated as an 'astronaut' and none of them fit perfectly with the way Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic are doing business." [3] It is even possible that by the FAA commercial astronaut definition, one company's July flight participants may receive FAA commercial astronaut wings while the other will not. [3] SpaceNews reported that "Blue Origin awarded their version of astronaut wings" to the four participants of the first Blue Origin passenger flight but was unclear on whether these included the FAA astronaut designation. [4]
With the advent of private commercial space flight ventures in the U.S., the FAA has been faced with the task of developing a certification process for the pilots of commercial spacecraft. The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 established the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation and required companies to obtain a launch license for vehicles, but at the time crewed commercial flight – and the licensing of crewmembers – was not considered. The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act has led to the issuance of draft guidelines by the FAA in February 2005 for the administration of vehicle and crew certifications. [5] [6] Currently, the FAA has not issued formal regulatory guidance for the issuance of a Commercial Astronaut Certificate, but as an interim measure, has established the practice of awarding "Commercial Astronaut Wings" to commercial pilots who have demonstrated the requisite proficiency. The content of 14 CFR Part 460 implies that an instrument rating and second-class medical certificate issued within the 12 months prior to the proposed qualifying flight will be included as a minimum standard.
The FAA's Commercial Astronaut Wings Program is designed to recognize flight crewmembers who further the FAA's mission to promote the safety of vehicles designed to carry humans. Astronaut Wings are given to flight crew who have demonstrated a safe flight to and return from space on an FAA/AST licensed mission. To be eligible for FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings, commercial launch crewmembers must meet the following criteria:
The emblem for the first set of FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings issued in 2004 has in its center a green globe on a blue background, with the three-prong astronaut symbol superimposed on top. In yellow block text around the globe are the words "Commercial Space Transportation" in all capital letters. In a gold ring outside the blue are the words "Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration" in black. Beginning with the wings awarded for flights in 2018, the design has been simplified to be the astronaut symbol, surrounded by the words "Commercial Space Transportation", all in gold on a black background. In December 2021, the FAA reconsidered the Commercial Astronaut Wings program as commercial space travel increased, and decided to end the program in January 2022. [8] Despite this, the FAA will still continue to recognize future commercial astronauts and will maintain a list of commercial astronauts who have flown to an altitude of 50 miles or higher. [9] [10]
Years awarded | Country | Commercial Astronaut Wings |
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2004 | US | ![]() |
2018 – 2021 | US | ![]() |
Beginning in January 2022, [11] the FAA started to maintain a list of individuals who have received FAA human spaceflight recognition. As of July 2022, there are the names of 45 individuals on that list that qualify for FAA human spaceflight recognition, but only 30 individuals on that list received FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings. [12]
# | Name | Vehicle | Company | Awarding Body | Qualification Date | Max Altitude | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mike Melvill [13] | SpaceShipOne | Scaled Composites | FAA | 21 June 2004 | 100 kilometers (62 mi) | First set of Commercial Astronaut wings; flight 15P |
2 | Brian Binnie [13] | SpaceShipOne | Scaled Composites | FAA | 31 October 2014 | 112 kilometers (70 mi) | flight 17P |
3 | Michael Alsbury [14] [15] | SpaceShipTwo Enterprise | Scaled Composites | FAA | 31 October 2014 | Honorary; awarded posthumously; flight PF04 | |
4 | Peter Siebold [14] [15] | SpaceShipTwo Enterprise | Scaled Composites | FAA | 31 October 2014 | Honorary; flight PF04 | |
5 | Mark Stucky [13] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 13 December 2018 | 83 kilometers (52 mi) | flight VP-03 |
6 | CJ Sturckow [13] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 13 December 2018 | 83 kilometers (52 mi) | First to hold both NASA (STS-88) and Commercial Astronaut (flight VP-03) wings |
7 | David Mackay [16] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 22 February 2019 | 90 kilometers (56 mi) | First person born in Scotland to enter space; flight VF-01 |
8 | Michael Masucci [16] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 22 February 2019 | 90 kilometers (56 mi) | flight VF-01 |
9 | Beth Moses [16] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 22 February 2019 | 90 kilometers (56 mi) | First passenger, first woman (Chief Astronaut Instructor and Interiors Program Manager); flight VF-01 |
10 | Richard Branson [14] | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 11 July 2021 | 86 kilometers (53 mi) | Founder of Virgin Galactic; Unity 22 |
11 | Colin Bennett | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 11 July 2021 | 86 kilometers (53 mi) | Unity 22 |
12 | Sirisha Bandla | SpaceShipTwo Unity | Virgin Galactic | FAA | 11 July 2021 | 86 kilometers (53 mi) | Unity 22 |
13 | Mark Bezos | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 20 July 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-16 |
14 | Jeff Bezos [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 20 July 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | Founder of Blue Origin; NS-16 |
15 | Wally Funk | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 20 July 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | Member of the Mercury 13; NS-16 |
16 | Oliver Daemen | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 20 July 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | Currently the youngest person to have flown in space; NS-16 |
17 | Jared Isaacman [14] | Crew Dragon | SpaceX | FAA | 16 September 2021 | 585 kilometers (364 mi) | Shift4 Payments CEO; Inspiration4 |
18 | Sian Proctor | Crew Dragon | SpaceX | FAA | 16 September 2021 | 585 kilometers (364 mi) | First female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot. First African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft. First African-American artist in space. Inspiration4 |
19 | Hayley Arceneaux | Crew Dragon | SpaceX | FAA | 16 September 2021 | 585 kilometers (364 mi) | First astronaut with a prosthesis. Inspiration4 |
20 | Christopher Sembroski | Crew Dragon | SpaceX | FAA | 16 September 2021 | 585 kilometers (364 mi) | Inspiration4 |
21 | Audrey Powers [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 13 October 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-18 |
22 | William Shatner | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 13 October 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | Actor, currently the oldest person to have flown in space; NS-18 |
23 | Chris Boshuizen | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 13 October 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-18 |
24 | Glen de Vries | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 13 October 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-18 |
25 | Laura Shepard Churchley [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | Daughter of the first U.S. astronaut, Alan Shepard; NS-19 |
26 | Michael Strahan [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-19 |
27 | Evan Dick [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-19 |
28 | Dylan Taylor [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | NS-19 |
29 | Cameron Bess [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | First parent-child spaceflight, with Lane Bess; NS-19 |
30 | Lane Bess [14] | New Shepard | Blue Origin | FAA | 11 December 2021 | 107 kilometers (66 mi) | First parent-child spaceflight, with Cameron Bess; NS-19 |
An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.
Private spaceflight refers to spaceflight activities undertaken by non-governmental entities, such as corporations, individuals, or non-profit organizations. This contrasts with public spaceflight, which is traditionally conducted by government agencies like NASA, ESA, or JAXA.
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010, but the date was delayed for several years, and then delayed again, primarily due to the October 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise.
A space competition is an inducement prize contest offering a prize to be given to the first competitor who demonstrates a space vehicle, or a space exploration apparatus, which meets a set of pre-established criteria. It spurs pioneering development in private spaceflight.
Human-rating certification, also known as man-rating or crew-rating, is the certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle as capable of safely transporting humans. There is no one particular standard for human-rating a spacecraft or launch vehicle, and the various entities that launch or plan to launch such spacecraft specify requirements for their particular systems to be human-rated.
Development of the Commercial Crew Program began in the second round of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which was rescoped from a technology development program for human spaceflight to a competitive development program that would produce the spacecraft to be used in the Commercial Crew Program to provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station (ISS). To implement the program NASA awarded a series of competitive fixed-price contracts to private vendors starting in 2011. Operational contracts to fly astronauts were awarded in September 2014 to SpaceX and Boeing, and NASA expected each company to complete development and achieve crew rating in 2017. Each company performed an uncrewed orbital test flight in 2019. SpaceX operational flights started in November 2020.
Namira Salim born in Karachi, is a Pakistani polar adventurer, astronaut and artist based in Monaco and Dubai. On the recommendation of the Pakistani government, she was in 2011 appointed as an honorary consul of Pakistan to Monaco, following her efforts to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries. She is the first Pakistani to have reached both the North Pole and the South Pole. Salim is the only Pakistani among the first 100 aspiring space tourists to purchase a ticket for Virgin Galactic's future commercial space liner. She became the first Pakistani astronaut, the first astronaut from Monaco, and the first female astronaut from the UAE to travel to space, traveling aboard Virgin Galactic on 6th October, 2023.
Mary Wallace Funk is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and the first female Federal Aviation Agency inspector, as well as one of the Mercury 13.
The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.
VP-03 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which took place on 13 December 2018, piloted by Mark P. Stucky and co-piloted by Frederick W. "CJ" Sturckow.
Beth Moses is chief space flight participant instructor and interiors program manager for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo program, and is a commercial astronaut, as classified by the Federal Aviation Administration. She was the first woman to make a spaceflight on a commercially launched vehicle, the VSS Unity VF-01 flight of 22 February 2019. She was also part of the six-member crew that flew in the first fully-crewed test flight to space on July 11, 2021, aboard VSS Unity.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Space Station program. American space manufacturer SpaceX began providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and NASA plans to add Boeing when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational no earlier than 2025. NASA has contracted for six operational missions from Boeing and fourteen from SpaceX, ensuring sufficient support for ISS through 2030.
Virgin Galactic Unity 22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which launched on 11 July 2021. The crew consisted of pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci as well as passengers Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, Beth Moses, and Richard Branson.
Sirisha Bandla is an Indian-American aeronautical engineer and space tourist. She is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations for Virgin Galactic. She flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission which made her the second India-born woman to go to space and the fourth person of Indian descent ever to go past the line of space after Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Oliver Daemen is a Dutch space tourist who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight. At the time of his flight he was 18 years old, and became the youngest person, first teenager, and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space using the United States definition of the boundary of space. He is a licensed pilot.