Quote Originally Posted by Edmond View Post
In terms of the first manned flight to Mars getting off the ground, so to speak, is there a set number of successful launches that have to happen before they're allowed to stick a few very brave people on top?
Presently there is no regulation at all for putting private persons on rockets. When talking of manrating by NASA that is a purely NASA concept for people they fly.

The only requirement is to inform people of the risks and those people signing a waiver, declaring they are aware of the risks. Concept of informed consent. SpaceX will set their own standards on when they are comfortable with flying people. They don't want to kill their passengers. For sure they will have a different approach to determining safety than NASA who go about it in a very formal, abstract way.

There are recent moves to give the FAA much more authority to establish rules for safety of human flights. Some thinktank has recently proposed to Congress to introduce legislation to give FAA that authority. Unclear, if and when that might happen.