Dr Andy Thomas has called out Richard Branson's bid to take passengers into orbit as being "dead-end" and "dangerous".
The remarks from the former NASA astronaut come after Branson's Virgin Galactic organisation last week celebrated the successful launch of a rocket plane into space for the first time.
SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, reached an altitude of 82,682m after being released by its carrier plane at 13,106m. It reached a top speed of 2.9 times the speed of sound.
After last week's successful flight, Branson said his group would now press on with its test program.
The roadmap focuses on three main areas for potential development: Space-derived services, space object tracking, and space exploration and utilisation.
The Australian Space Agency in September signed a Memorandum of Understanding with France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, with both agencies joining forces to develop their space capabilities, particularly in the areas of operations, science, Earth observation, positioning systems, and communications.
The arrangement was followed in October by the signing of two similar agreements with counterpart agencies in Canada and the United Kingdom.
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