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Agency tackles safety of space travel
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THE United Nation’s civil aviation body, currently wrestling with how to help airlines maintain safety over conflict zones, is taking its first steps toward protection for commercial vessels in space.
Commercial space travel took a big leap this week after the United States space agency NASA awarded a combined US$6.8 billion to Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to build commercially owned and operated “space taxis” to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. The contract allows Boeing to sell rides to tourists; SpaceX already planned to offer trips to tourists, but didn’t say if it will fly tourists on its NASA missions.
“We’re starting to look at (suborbital space travel) more closely,” said a representative on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) governing council.
Montreal-based ICAO will hold its first conference on issues related to commercial space travel next year and will discuss whether it should expand its governance to include oversight of suborbital space travel.
ICAO was criticized for not warning of the risks to commercial aircraft over conflict zones after a Malaysian airline was downed over east Ukraine in July, killing 298 people. The agency is not responsible for opening or closing airspace, a task left to individual states.
Industry experts said ICAO, which promotes the development of global civil aviation, should play a role in planning for the retrieval of space debris, for instance, at a time when private enterprise is eyeing the final frontier.
“People are thinking about it, but how it is to be instituted is not clear,” said Prashant Sukul, India’s representative on the governing council. “If it’s not ICAO, then who’s it going to be?”
Discussion aimed at broadening ICAO’s mandate is under way but will take years to apply. Sukul acknowledged the challenge space represents for an agency that can take years to tackle key issues on Earth.
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