Passengers on Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’s suborbital thrill rides will not earn official status as astronauts solely for going to space, after the US government changed the rules to protect the kudos of the title.
The Federal Aviation Administration revised its criteria for awarding its prestigious Commercial Space Astronaut Wings on the day Bezos and three others flew into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and nine days after Sir Richard Branson went there and back on his Virgin Galactic rocketplane.
The change leaves open a loophole that could allow Branson, Bezos and their crewmates to still qualify, but could block their future customers, including research scientists, from earning the honour.
“In order to maintain the prestige of Commercial Space Astronaut Wings,
