Colorado limits space travel liability

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Gov. John Hickenlooper is signing a bill meant to encourage commercial space launches from Colorado by limiting the liability of companies that take passengers aboard spaceships.

Hickenlooper is scheduled to sign the bill Thursday at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

(An attempt to pass a similar bill for the New Mexico's Spaceport America failed earlier this year in the Legislature.)

Colorado is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to grant a spaceport designation to Front Range Airport, a small facility six miles from Denver International Airport.

The bill is designed to remove one potential obstacle that could discourage commercial space-flight companies from starting operations in the state.