Back in the day when space exploration was the brave new frontier of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and a monkey named Gordo, NASA presided over it all with a god-like presence.

In 2014, with a rocket exploding near one coast and a futuristic spaceship crashing near the other, theres another new frontier: regulating corporate Americas rush to capitalize on the vacuum created when NASA retired from hands-on space flight.

Into that void, Congress thrust the Federal Aviation Administration, charging it with setting the guidelines for a fledgling industry that has drawn more than a half dozen companies with a variety of goals.

Its a little bit different than the rest of the aviation oversight that we do, said FAA spokeswoman Laura J. Brown, because the industry is kind of where the Wright brothers were in aviation.

Some companies want to deliver payloads to the orbiting International Space Station; others plan to launch satellites and research missions; and some intend to carry paying passengers on joyrides into space.

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. (NASA)

The Antares rocket that exploded on takeoff from Virginias Eastern Shore on Oct. 28 was built by Orbital Sciences and bound for the space station carrying the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft loaded with food, water and equipment. The Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed on a test flight in the Mojave Desert three days later was designed to carry passengers into flight.

The fact that the spacecraft flew under two different FAA guidelines underscores the nascent nature of space flight regulation. It also reflects the challenge federal regulators face in governing emerging technologies: Step in too soon with a heavy hand and it may stifle creative thinking.

A current example: The people developing the new breed of autonomous cars have begged state and federal regulators not to impose rigid guidelines until they can refine how best to make things work.

Congress has taken the viewpoint that they understand that [commercial space flight] is an evolving industry, Brown said, and if you put a regulatory framework in place that was as constrictive or as comprehensive as it is in commercial aviation, it would basically kill the industry before it got off the ground.

Original post:

After two crashes, how can commercial space flights be regulated?