The initiative will be part of NASA’s plans to commercialise space travel and is an offshoot of the Commercial Crew Programme the agency signed with private US aerospace companies. Last month, it resulted in the first manned mission to the International Space Station from American soil since 2011.
NASA announced a plan to fly astronauts and other personnel on future commercial suborbital spaceflights on 23 June. The agency has created a new office called the Suborbital Crew (SubC) whose goal is to perform a system qualification, or safety assessment, to enable NASA astronauts, principal investigators, and other NASA personnel to take advantage of these unique capabilities.
NASA said private space companies are preparing to offer suborbital space flights as a service and noted that it wants to be a buyer. The companies in question are Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which is working on its first mission with a reusable rocket and capsule system called New Shepard, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
The latter inked a partnership deal with NASA this week on private space missions to the International Space Station. Under the agreement Virgin Galactic will look for individuals interested in purchasing tickets to the ISS, prepare them for the mission, and provide a suitable transportation. There has been no information on the timeline, requirements, and cost of the future space trips.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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