Virgin Galactic Gets FAA OK on Air Traffic Control, Only 1 Bazillion More Regulatory Hurdles Left

Yesterday was a big one for the private
spaceflight industry.

While SpaceX
was busy whisking sheets off of space capsules to ferry
humans back and forth to the International Space Station, their
colleagues/competitors at Virgin Galactic got some
good news from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about
their efforts to launch commercial tourist flights to the edge of
space from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Headlines like this one in the Daily Mail overstate the
case a bit: 

Virgin Galactic gets the green light: US aviation authorities
approve Branson’s space flights for launch later this year

This one from (an otherwise
accurate) Mashable article is off the mark as
well, and not just because the design of Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo
means that there really isn’t a blast-off from the spaceport in the
sense that we are accustomed to from NASA’s shuttles—it’s more like
a take-off:

You’re
Cleared for Blast-Off: Virgin Galactic Gets FAA Approval

The FAA and other federal regulators will still have a lot say
about what Virgin can and cannot do. But the space tourism company
founded by ultrarich entrepreneur Richard Branson did manage to
reach an agreement with the FAA about how flights out of the
heavily taxpayer
subsidized Spaceport America will interact with terrestrial air
traffic control authorities in Albuquerque.

Here’s the
company’s “thank you and please don’t screw us in the future,
regulators” boilerplate press release: 

“Our team is working hard to begin routine and affordable space
launches from Spaceport America and this agreement brings us
another step closer to that goal,” Virgin Galactic Chief Executive
George Whitesides said in a statement. “We are grateful to the FAA
and New Mexico for their partnership to achieve this
milestone.”

More from Reason on the FAA as a roadblock to space
tourism
here.