wanttaja
En-Route
Interesting to consider the crewed flights.Satellites have moved well beyond experimental territory.
Blue Origin's New Shepard is off the ground for about 11 minutes. First paying passengers flew on the 16th flight. That means the vehicle took commercial passengers after less than THREE HOURS of flight test. The FAA doesn't let experimental aircraft carry passengers unless they have more than eight times that amount of flight experience.
The regulatory structure has to be far different from aircraft, of course, as the missions certainly don't match. Several locations around the world would be quite happy to host American space companies that don't want FAA regulatory oversight.
Ron Wanttaja