A conceptual drawing of Spaceport America. (Courtesy photo)
NASA has selected Virgin Galactic to fly technology payloads into suborbital space in a move that is certain to benefit Spaceport America in Southern New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic announced that it won the NASA contract today in a news release. From the release:
“Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS, has been selected by NASA to provide flight opportunities for engineers, technologists and scientific researchers to fly technology payloads into space. This arrangement marks the first time that NASA has contracted with a commercial partner to provide flights into space on a suborbital spacecraft, and represents another important endorsement of the value of regular commercial space access for a wide range of science and educational applications.”
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which is plans to use to launch paying customers into suborbital space from Spaceport America, is “the only crewed suborbital vehicle in fight test today,” the release states.
In using it as a research platform for researchers and scientists, Virgin Galactic has created another revenue stream that will benefit its space program. That in turn benefits Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic has signed a 20-year lease that takes effect once the spaceport is completed.