Virgin Galactic?has announced a collaboration with?NASA?to encourage space tourism, with commercial participation in orbital human spaceflight to the International Space Station.?
In case you didn¡¯t know, Virgin Galactic is known to be working on commercial space tourism trips aboard its VSS Unity, that launches passengers mid-air after being dropped from an aircraft carrier.?
This NASA agreement is a part of the new Space Act Agreement that asks Virgin Galactic to develop a new private orbital astronaut readiness programme. This will include identification of candidates who are interested to purchase private astronaut missions to the ISS, as well as procurement of transportation to the ISS, on-orbit as well as on-ground resources.
Virgin Galactic believes that this is not limited to just tourists but also scientists and organisations who wish to explore space, conduct research missions.?
Virgin Galactic will also contribute end-to-end programme management and integrated astronaut training for private passengers to perfectly fit their need of orbital experience. Virgin Galactic has already developed a Future Astronaut Readiness programme for its customers flying out of Spaceport America in New Mexico
George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement, "We are excited to partner with NASA on this private orbital spaceflight programme, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflight platform but also offer our space training infrastructure to NASA and other agencies.¡±
He added, ¡°Based on the unsurpassed levels of spaceflight customer commitments we have secured to date, we are proud to share that insight in helping to grow another market for the new space economy. We want to bring the planetary perspective to many thousands of people."
NASA is taking more interest in private players in the space race.?And this was bound to happen, of course, but we can't contain our excitement!
We already saw the involvement with SpaceX and previously with other major players like Blue Origin lead by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos as well as Dynetics (a Leidos company) from Huntsville, Alabama.