Is it illegal for a civilian to send things into space?
No, it’s not, but primarily for safety reasons (such as not knocking airplanes out of the sky), you need to get a permit for a time and place to launch your >whatever<. If you want to do space tourism, fine, but get a permit. You want to be an amateur rocketeer and fly to the edge of space, fine, but get a permit. I love this story. Two days ago on CNN, there was a British fellow who got bored, bought a $100 digital camera on eBay, a common weather balloon, duct tape, cardboard, and a GPS locator beacon (at $600, the most expensive part of the project), and just let it go... it went up 22 miles, automatically took pictures of Britain, the French coast, the sky, curvature of the Earth... when the balloon eventually popped (as they all do when they rise), it parachuted to the ground, and he found it with the beacon. Got some beautiful shots form space that are just on the same quality as those taken from the Shuttles and ISS -- for a grand total of about $750 (US). Needless to say, NASA,
