'Space Rescue Service' needed for coming space tourism era, report argues

The silhouette of a spacesuit floats with a tether in front of a yellow-lit background, which fades to black toward the right.

Rescuers on Earth can reach a lot of rugged environments: stranded boaters in the ocean, folks injured while skiing in the mountains, and victims of plane crashes in rural areas.

But there's currently no emergency-rescue system for space — and there might be a way to change that. The nonprofit Rand Corp. suggests that a Space Rescue Service, if funded and given a strong enough mandate, could be deployed to help astronauts or tourists stuck in low Earth orbit — or even at the moon.