If you’re bored of football games and parties this New Year’s holiday weekend and looking for some alternatives, you may want to read the new Notice for Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on crew and passenger requirements for commercial vehicles released Thursday by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST). This NPRM was developed by AST, with industry input, as a requirement of the Commercial Space Transportation Amendments Act, signed into law a year ago. I have not had a chance to read the document (about 120 double-spaced pages long) yet, but an AP article summarizes some of the key points of the document, many of which are simply common sense: safety training for passengers, FAA pilot certificates for pilots, and no weapons allowed on board the spacecraft, among other things.
