Considerations Toward Defining Medical “Levels of Care” for Commercial Spaceflight

While all modes of human transportation introduce some degree of risk to life and health, the rigors of spaceflight present particularly challenging physiological and environmental factors that occur under very unforgiving operational circumstances. Commercial spaceflight will face issues similar to those experienced on prior traditional space missions, as well as encounter other health concerns more common to civil aviation. Consequently, in addition to vehicle design safety considerations, some form of medical care equipment is likely to be made available as good practice. Lessons learned from past experiences in space along with existing commercial aviation standards offer valuable insight into defining appropriate medical care needs for the commercial space industry. This article outlines current practices and rationale from these related applications, and offers considerations for establishing effective medical level of care provisions for future commercial spaceflight operations.