Spaceflight participant informed consent
The regime allowing a passenger to fly after written acceptance of an uncertified risk, in the absence of any occupant safety standard.
Commercial human spaceflight rests on no airworthiness certification comparable to that of air transport, for want of the statistical base needed to build one. American lawmakers therefore adopted a transitional fix, the so-called learning period: it suspends occupant safety rulemaking and puts a regime of informed consent in its place. The passenger, described as a spaceflight participant rather than a carried passenger, receives in writing the record of known vehicle and system failures, then formally agrees to fly despite them. The logic is that of hazardous sport rather than public transport, and the safety question moves into the contract. For insurance, it produces two opposing effects. The operator's liability toward the participant is heavily restricted, while liability toward third parties on the ground remains whole and subject to compulsory cover. As for individual policies bought by participants themselves, they run into the aviation and hazardous pursuit exclusions of ordinary life and accident contracts.
The American informed consent regime for participants in commercial human spaceflight was created by the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, and the moratorium on occupant safety rulemaking has been extended repeatedly by Congress.
Follow the research
One letter a week. First, the week's underwriting note, when one is published: a dated, argued decision, signed by Paul Bernardski. Then what the observatory published on cyber risk, political risk and insurance. No account, no tracking.
No spam, one-click unsubscribe, no data ever sold.