The idea of space tourism has been an idea ever since we first started venturing into space. Only recently in the last ten years or so has it come into fruition. In the U.S. there are two major companies that are trying to make space tourism happen. Virgin Galactic was formed in 2004 and has always had the goal of putting civilians into space (Virgin Galactic 2016). Space X is based in southern California and has made huge progress in the engineering of unmanned reusable rockets that can land themselves on barges in the ocean (Space X 2016). Civilian space flight seems like a great idea but it comes with unlimited hurdles and logistical problems. The biggest issues to overcome are cost and safety. To this day only a handful of "civilians" have actually been able to pay to go to space and it cost them each over 20 million dollars. With a cost like this less then half a percent of our population can afford to go. Lives have been lost in experimental civilian spacecraft crashes and there will be more to come. As we try to find ways to get into space "cheaper" and more affordable it's inevitable that  safety will decrease in priority at some point.

Currently the FAA is not allowed to regulate standards for commercial spacecraft as they do for commercial aircraft such as airliners. I think that this is not only a good thing but is absolutely essential for commercial space travel to get off its feet. Civilian space travel would literally never get off the ground if the space travel industry was regulated as heavily as the airline world. On another note I really don't think that the FAA has enough knowledge or the correct personal to regulate an industry that isn't even transporting customers regularly yet. How can you regulate an industry that has never even been around before? It would be like having an FAA around when the Wright Brothers were developing their first aircraft. It's simply hard to regulate something that has never been before.

I honestly don't foresee space tourism headed anywhere fast. It's still too expensive for enough civilians to show a big enough interest in order to make it a financially stable business. There will always be lots of money to be made launching satellites for companies. In fact this is how Space X funds their research (Space X 2016). But money in human space flight for pleasure will be harder to come by. Technology and money are the limiting factors. There are a lot of people interested, however because space tourism is more of a bucket list adventure instead of a return customer business I don't think it will survive. I compare it to the skydiving industry where about eighty percent of an average drop zone's revenue is "one and done" tandem customers (Blue Skies 2014) The only way I think commercial space tourism will thrive is with return customers but they need to offer different kinds of adventures for that to happen. Maybe trips to the moon or even other planets could eventually be other trips offered. I would love to see this a reality but unfortunately I don't realistically see this happening in any of our life times. We simply don't have the technology to make these kinds of ventures economically feasible for civilians.

If I were to work at a company that is trying to get civilian space flight a reality like Virgin Galactic or Space X I would want to be a pilot. In order to be a civilian space flight test pilot you need to know someone already well affiliated with and inside such a company. Chances are you're not going to get hired off the street as the average healthy commercial pilot. Military jet experience helps as well as any bachelors degree in a technical field such as engineering or mathematics. Obviously if you're an ex shuttle pilot that has been laid off from NASA your application may be moved to the top of the list. The more education you have the better but the quality of your flight hours is just as important. Test pilot experience as well as thousands of hours of PIC jet time are highly desirable.



References
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
Blue Skies Magazine
http://www.spacex.com/about