What conflict between regulatory standards creates the bureaucratic gray area for suborbital flyers like Bezos?

The difference between NASA’s mission criticality focus and the FAA’s prior altitude focus.

The current bureaucratic ambiguity surrounding the title for commercial space tourists stems directly from the divergence in criteria used by major entities. NASA’s traditional view prioritizes professional involvement and mission criticality, meaning high altitude alone is insufficient without a functional role. In contrast, the FAA's previous criteria heavily weighted reaching a specific altitude (50 miles) while also requiring operational involvement. Because suborbital flyers like Bezos meet the altitude requirement but fail the professional/operational requirement demanded by NASA and previously by the FAA, they exist in a gray area where they technically reached space but do not align with established definitions of a career astronaut.