SwRI Has Made Full Deposits For Flight By Two Scientists
A recently-signed contract with the Southwest Research Institute
is the first such agreement to fly scientists into space (over 100
kilometers or 328,000 feet above the Earth), enabling valuable
microgravity, biology, climate and astronomy research, according to
Virgin Galactic, which will fly the missions.
As part of the contract announced Monday, SwRI has made full
deposits for two researchers to fly on Virgin Galactic's
spacecraft, with the intent to make similar arrangements for an
additional six seats for a total value of $1.6 million. As well as
flying its own researchers, who will carry scientific experiments
developed by its in-house technical staff, SwRI also aims to assist
American researchers who do not have direct spaceflight experience
to develop and fly their payloads and personnel on suborbital
missions.
"This agreement signals the enormous scientific potential of the
Virgin spaceflight system," said George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic
President and CEO. "Virgin Galactic will be able to offer
researchers flights to space that are unprecedented in frequency
and cost. Science flights will be an important growth area for the
company in the years to come, building on the strong commercial
success already demonstrated by deposits received from over 400
individuals for Virgin's space experience."
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo currently in flight testing,
and is on a spacecraft that has already sent humans into space, the
X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne.
SwRI's Dr. Alan Stern, Associate Vice President of SwRI's Space
Division and former NASA Associate Administrator for Science,
stated: "We at SwRI are very excited about this agreement.
Initially, two of our payload specialists will be flying on Virgin
Galactic, conducting biomedical monitoring, atmospheric imaging,
and microgravity planetary regolith experiments. We're excited to
be flying with Virgin Galactic to pioneer research missions on
their amazing vehicles; we look forward to the not so distant day
when entire Virgin Galactic flights are filled with researchers and
their experiments." Dr. Stern is the Principal Investigator of this
project.
NASA has recognized the importance of this research platform
through its new Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Flight
Opportunities program. While separate from today's announcement,
that program will open significant additional opportunities for
researchers onboard suborbital vehicles. The Virgin Galactic-SwRI
agreement represents another important endorsement of the value of
regular commercial human space access for a wide range of science
and educational applications.