Red tape in outer space? More regulations could be on way

WASHINGTON It's a story almost as old as humanity: Braving unknown dangers, a team of explorers settles a wild frontier, and then almost as quickly bureaucrats tie it up with red tape.

This time, the frontier is outer space. And the regulators are from the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial-rocket launches in addition to monitoring the airlines.

The FAA has so far been constrained by one major loophole: Once a spacecraft reaches orbit, it's largely free of regulation a libertarian's final refuge.

But that could change soon.

This week, at a congressional hearing and an industry conference in Washington, FAA officials and space attorneys began seriously discussing rules of the road for outer space, from mining rights to safety practices.

Although there have been some broad guidelines the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, for example, prohibits nations from claiming the moon specific space regulations have been few and far between. In part that's because few countries let alone private companies have had the ability to blast people or products into orbit.

But the commercial space industry, once a pipe dream for "Star Trek" fans, has burgeoned in recent years.

In 2012, the California company SpaceX became the first commercial-rocket company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. And space tourism companies, such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, are preparing to fly passengers to suborbital space as soon as this year.

Those efforts have led Congress, the administration and industry to begin talking about how to ensure that people and property stay safe in microgravity.

These proposals run the gamut, from figuring out how to restrict the amount of dangerous "space junk" shed by spacecraft to finding a way to coordinate traffic in Earth's orbit.

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Red tape in outer space? More regulations could be on way