Insurance Goes Space Age as States Regulate ‘SpacePort’ Coverage
Feb. 16, 2010 – As Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture, Virgin Galactic, prepares to become the world’s first commercial provider of space travel, several states are working on legislation regulating insurance coverage for space travel.
The New Mexico Senate recently voted 37-0 to approve Senate Bill 9, which regulates liability insurance coverage for space travel from the state’s $200 million Spaceport America complex located about 45 north of Las Cruces, Mew Mexico.
Entitled “The Space Flight Informed Consent Act,” the measure protects the complex against liability suits and outlines legal requirements for informing passengers of the extreme risks and inherent dangers of space travel. Passengers must sign waiver forms acknowledging they understand the risks being taken and holding the state and spaceport harmless in order to proceed into space. Companies providing space travel could be held liable for death or injuries if a judge determines the company was grossly negligent.
The Space Flight Informed Consent Act is modeled after similar laws enacted in Virginia and Florida and must be approved by the New Mexico House of Representatives. State officials say the measure is necessary to protect taxpayers against potential legal liability issues arising from commercial operations.
“It does not protect the component manufacturers,” Sen. Mary Kay Papen (D-Las Cruces) told the Associated Press. “A plaintiff can still sue. There’s still a duty to exercise care. It’s just a way that we’re looking at protecting the [state’s] investment in the spaceport.”
New Mexico lawmakers say the measure was necessary to give the Land of Enchantment an additional competitive advantage over other states vying for future commercial space travel ventures.
Officials at Virgin Galactic plan to begin taking up to six passengers per flight into space next year out of the New Mexico spaceport facility. Passengers would pay a $200,000 fee for a 2.5-hour flight about 360,000 feet above Earth and more than 50 miles into space, including about 5 minutes of zero gravity. The spacecraft would return to Earth by “feathering” its wings and slowly
Rather than using conventional launching techniques, the company has built two technologically advanced aircraft to carry the smaller spacecrafts to higher altitudes before launching them. The two spacecraft are 28 feet and 60 feet long, respectively, with each described as an “air-launched glider with a rocket motor” and additional systems for space travel, according to the Virgin Galactic Web site.
Virgin Galactic is owned by Branson and famed aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. Rutan’s brother, Dick, completed the first non-stop global flight without refueling while flying one of his brother’s experimental aircraft in 1986.