FAA to stop issuing commercial astronaut wings

2 years ago 307

Tony Gutierrez/AP

FILE - Oliver Daemen, from left, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, laminitis of Amazon and abstraction tourism institution Blue Origin, and Wally Funk, right, participates successful a station motorboat briefing wherever they discussed their formation acquisition aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket astatine its spaceport adjacent Van Horn, Texas, connected July 20, 2021. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, they are nary longer contiguous commercialized astronaut wings starting adjacent year, excessively galore radical are launching into space. All 15 radical who rocketed into abstraction this twelvemonth connected backstage flights from the U.S. volition inactive person their wings from the FAA. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

Posted at 6:56 PM, Dec 10, 2021

and past updated 2021-12-10 19:57:05-05

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it volition soon nary longer springiness retired commercialized astronaut wings owed to the emergence successful popularity of abstraction tourism.

Starting successful 2022, radical who scope abstraction volition beryllium recognized with their names connected the FAA website.

The FAA says the Astronaut Wings programme was created "to admit pilots and formation unit who furthered the FAA’s ngo to beforehand the improvement of vehicles designed to transportation humans into space."

Now that 3 companies are licensed by the FAA to supply commercialized spaceflights, the bureau says the imaginativeness of the program's creator is "largely fulfilled."

Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and William Shatner are among those receiving their wings for taking portion successful flights this year.

People who question to abstraction anterior to the extremity of 2021 volition besides person their wings.

Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan is scheduled to beryllium among the unit successful a Blue Origin rocket that is scheduled to scope abstraction connected Saturday. The formation was primitively scheduled for Thursday, but it was delayed owed to precocious winds successful Texas.