FROM SPACE REGULATOR TO ASTRONAUT: George Nield spent his government career thinking about space. Then he got to fly.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine

FOR THE FIRST time ever, more people will go to space as commercial astronauts than as government astronauts in 2022. Admittedly, the government astronauts spent more total time off-world this year than their private counterparts--stints on the International Space Station (ISS) are long and space tourism hops are short--but given the state of the industry, those trends are unlikely to reverse anytime soon.

One of those commercial astronauts was George Nield. He retired four years ago as the head commercial space regulator at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and on March 31, 2022, he became a beneficiary of the industry he once regulated when he boarded Blue Origin's New Shepard for its fourth manned flight. (This flight attracted some additional press attention because it was also supposed to contain the tattooed comedian and adjunct influencer Pete Davidson, though he later pulled out.)

During his regulatory career, Nield--a former Air Force officer who also worked at NASA and the Orbital Sciences Corporation--served in an unusual two-part role as the administrator of the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation: He was charged with both ensuring public safety and promoting the fledgling commercial space transportation industry. The state of the industry today suggests he succeeded at each. In July, Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward sat down with Nield to discuss his childhood dreams of space, the state of the industry, and what the future holds.

Reason: You flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard. It was a suborbital flight. What was that like?

Nield: I was interested in aviation and space as a child and used to cut out newspaper articles and pictures in Life magazine of the space chimps and the Mercury astronauts.

I did apply to NASA to become an astronaut and twice made the final cuts--was invited down to Houston for a physical exam and an interview and so forth--but did not make that last selection. I did have an opportunity to work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on the shuttle program, which was very exciting, and had other roles in industry, and then at the FAA. I thought: "Boy, that really would've been neat to actually have a chance to go into space, but it's looking like I probably won't get that opportunity."

And then about a year ago, we started seeing some activity in industry: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin. Jeff Bezos announced [he was] going to auction off one of the seats on our first human spaceflight that he himself planned to fly on, so anybody that's interested send in your application. So I filled out the paperwork and put in a bid for that, and then watched as the price went out of sight and thought, "Well, I tried." Did not win. But a few months after the auction itself, the company got back with me and said, "You didn't win that seat, but would you be interested in flying on a later flight?"

Blue Origin has designed New Shepard to be a completely autonomous vehicle, which means they do not have a pilot on board [or] on the ground. It's just computers that are operating the system. They do have a fully staffed mission control room of folks looking over the vehicle, but it's pretty much flying on its own.

That may be troubling to some people. My view was that's minimizing the opportunity for pilot errors. So it can be a good thing if you think about it that way.

Because all we had to do was think about the experience and potential emergency procedures, that allowed Blue Origin to streamline the training so that it only was three full days at their astronaut village out in West Texas. And a lot of that time was practicing getting in and out of the capsule and our seats and harnesses, talking on the radio, and then responding to potential emergencies that could arise. So with three days of reviewing the mission with those kinds of activities, I think we all felt pretty confident and pretty comfortable that we were ready to head to space.

After three days of training, it was launch day. Early wake-up, got up about 4 [a.m.], still dark, had a little bit to eat. They had arranged it so that all of us could have our family, friends, and guests there at Astronaut Village to give us a hug and say goodbye, if you will.

Then [we] hopped in the cars and were driven out to the training center again, to get into our flight suits, and one more time review the procedures and practice getting in and out of the capsule. And then, 45 minutes...