The BBC's [](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57797297) says:

>There's clearly something of an edge in the Branson-Bezos relationship, however.
>
>On Friday, the retail billionaire's Blue Origin space company had issued a tweet that took a pop at Virgin Galactic's Unity vehicle. The posting repeated a claim that anyone who flew on the rocket plane would forever have an asterisk by their name because they wouldn't reach the "internationally recognised" altitude for where space begins - the so-called Kármán line of 100km.
>
>The US government has always recognised the boundary of space to be at about 80km (50 miles) **and it awards astronaut wings to anyone who exceeds this altitude. Before Sunday, only 580 people had ever been above this height.**

Of course several companies are hoping and planning to make this number much, much larger; their business models depend on it. SpaceX has even suggested "Anywhere on Earth in under an hour" point-to-point suborbital ICBM-esque rocket-hopping. (Both Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell have touched on this possible future in public remarks)

**Question:** Does the US government plan to issue "Astronaut Wings" to anyone (space tourists or even just daily rocket-hopping passengers) passing 80 km *forever?*

 - Or at some point will they have to pass the task (and the expense) to a private entity? 
 - Are there already plans in the works to do so?
 - Who makes them and pays for them currently?