This seems fairly needlessly petty:
Federal aviation regulators have made a rare change to the requirements for its Commercial Astronaut Wings Program, meaning Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos may not officially be recognized for his spaceflight this week.
The Federal Aviation Administration changed rules for the program on the same day Bezos, his brother and two others made their historic first commercial spaceflight on Tuesday.
It’s not the rules changes themselves – I’m not going to pretend I knew what they were and are before I read the article – rather, it’s the timing of it. I may not be checked out on the minutiae of what makes an ‘official’ astronaut, but I do have some ability to detect when somebody in the federal bureaucracy has decided to be a jackwagon. I’m detecting some of that right now. If for no other reason that they could have waited a day.
And then there’s the Wally Funk angle. That’s what startles me more than a little. Yeah, I get that Bezos is not well-liked by many people. But Funk’s been trying to get into space for longer than I’ve been alive. It seems rude to give her the formal recognition that she finally made it.
Via Instapundit.
The arbitrary nature of it is the point, Moe.
From a quick glance, it looks like the rules change is “it doesn’t count unless you’re doing something *meaningful* up there.” Also, the timing of the rules change says that Branson and crew get theirs, but Bezos and crew (two weeks later) don’t.
Prior to this, the rules hadn’t changed in 17 years.
So… yeah. Jackwagonry.
A federal bureaucrat acting both petty and arbitrary?
I sha’n’t believe it. I just shant.