NASA is
studying the potential of future cooperation with the suborbital tourism firm Virgin Galactic
on a variety of fronts, agency officials announced Wednesday.
A
Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. space agency and Virgin Galactic,
signed Tuesday, will allow NASA to eye future collaboration with the space
tourism firm on the development of spacesuits,
spacecraft
heat shields, hybrid
rocket motors and hypersonic
vehicles.
"By
encouraging such potential collaborations, NASA supports the development of
greater commercial collaboration and applications that will serve to strengthen
and enhance the future benefits of space exploration for all of mankind," Shana
Dale, NASA's deputy administrator, said in a statement.
Founded
by British billionaire
Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is building a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo
spacecraft to carry paying passengers on suborbital spaceflights based
first out New Mexico's
Spaceport America in 2008 and followed by flights from Kiruna, Sweden
in 2012. Designed by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan,
the SpaceShipTwo vehicle is an evolved version of SpaceShipOne,
which won the $10
million suborbital Ansari X Prize competition for reusable, privately-built
crewed spacecraft in 2004.
"We
are excited to be working with NASA and look forward to future collaborations
in exploration and space travel," Alex Tai, vice president of operations
for Virgin Galactic, said in a statement.
Under
the memorandum, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California will
study the possibility of future collaboration with Virgin Galactic for a period
of two years, though no funds will be exchanged between the two entities.
NASA
officials stressed that the memorandum does not include provisions for astronaut
training, the purchase of future seats
aboard Virgin Galactic spacecraft or the supply of technical advice to the
private spaceflight firm.
The
announcement, however, comes after NASA pledged earlier
this month to provide technical support, but now funding, for two other
private spaceflight efforts by the Chicago-based firm PlanetSpace,
Inc. and Transformation
Space Corp. (t/Space) or Reston, Virginia.
Still
another pair of private spaceflight companies developing crew and cargo
spacecraft with NASA funding -- California's Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Oklahoma-based Rocketplane
Kistler -- passed major milestones last week under the space agency's Commercial Orbital
Transportation System (COTS).
NASA
is studying the possibility of commercial crew and cargo delivery services to
the ISS to fill in the gap between the planned 2010 retirement of the agency's shuttle fleet and first crewed
flights of its capsule-based Orion
Crew Exploration Vehicles in 2014.
SpaceX's
preliminary design review of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew and cargo
spacecraft received NASA approval this month, the space agency has said.
Meanwhile, Rocketplane Kistler set requirements for the interfaces between its
two-stage, reusable K-1 cargo transportation system and the International Space
Station (ISS).
"As
we constantly seek to build upon the advances made by explorers who have come
before us, we now embark upon an exciting time in space exploration history
that realizes the unlimited opportunities presented by a commercial space
economy," Dale said in the agency's Wednesday statement.
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