The Commercial Space Industry

Since manned space flight was first accomplished in 1961, the dream of readily available, affordable commercial spaceflight has been the dream of entrepreneurs all over the world. Pan Am Airlines was one of the first companies to take advantage of people's desire to travel to space, "Between 1968 and 1971, Pan Am issued over 93,000 “First Moon Flights” Club cards to space enthusiasts eager to make a reservation for the first commercial flight to the Moon. Issued at no cost, the membership cards were numbered according to priority. The Club originated from a waiting list that is said to have started in 1964, when Gerhard Pistor, an Austrian journalist, went to a Viennese travel agency requesting a flight to the Moon. The agency forwarded his request to Pan Am, which accepted the reservation two weeks later and replied that the first flight was expected to depart in 2000." (Haupt, 2015) While Pan Am's "First Moon Flights" Club never came to fruition, many companies have tackled the challenge that is commercial space flight. Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are a few of the big names currently in the business of trying to perfect commercial space travel. The biggest hurdle as of late has been cost. With individuals like Dennis Tito, the first individual that funded their own trip to space, paying 20 million dollars or more, it's not exactly something that is the reach of the average Joe. While Tito went through the Russian space agency, current contenders like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are testing reusable rockets and aircraft, to bring the cost of space travel down to the point where it's attainable for at least the moderately wealthy instead of just the incredibly wealthy. (Wall, 2011)

Currently, the space industry is not very regulated. There was a bill passed in 2015 that decided against regulation of the industry, something that may have curtailed development and stunted the growth of the industry if it was shackled by strict regulations. The decision to leave this industry loosely regulated will allow for continued growth and development which will hopefully allow commercial space travel to flourish. I'm sure that eventually regulations will come to ensure the safety of tourists travelling to space, but for the time being, the understanding is that anyone that travels to space is doing so at their own risk. 

I think that in the next 20 years or so, commercial space travel will become available to more than just the super-rich, but I believe that we are a long way from space tourism being on par with current air travel.  A more realistic idea might be one where aircraft transport passengers from location to location at sub-orbital altitudes. As far as orbital space as a tourist destination, I really see it staying as a prohibitively expensive one time "bucket-list" adventure. 

As far as becoming a pilot for a budding space tourism company, Virgin Galactic is/was looking for pilots for their space program. The qualifications are quite extensive. The basic FAA commercial multi certificate to start, then a degree in a relevant technical field, the applicant must also be a graduate of an approved test pilot school with at least 2 years of experience a test pilot on high performance jet aircraft and large multi-engine transport category aircraft. Astronaut experience is not required, however it is preferred. So that narrows down the pool of qualified applicants considerably, but it's to be expected considering the fact that these pilots will be flying xperimental aircraft into space. 

References:

 Haupt, T. (2015, July 31). Were You a Member of the "First Moon Flights Club"? Retrieved October 21, 2016, from https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/were-you-member-“first-moon-flights”-club 

Wall, M. (2011, April 27). First Space Tourist: How a U.S. Millionaire Bought a ...  Retrieved October 21, 2016, from http://www.space.com/11492-space-tourism-pioneer-dennis-tito.html