NASA commercial suborbital & parabolic research now in Flight Opportunities Program
NASA’s CRuSR (Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research) program recently held their “first successful Payload Readiness Review (PRR) for payloads flying on the first CRuSR development flights with Masten’s Xaero vehicle”: NASA Successful CRuSR Payload Readiness Review (PRR) – Flight Opportunities Program Blog – Dec.13.10.
The two payloads are described on this page at the Payloads Section of the NASA Flight Opportunities Program site.
As you can see, the commercial suborbital research program website has been reorganized and now resides within NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist under the NASA Flight Opportunities Program:
> The Flight Opportunities program combines the Facilitated Access to the Space environment for Technology (FAST) and Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) efforts previously managed by the Innovative Partnership Program Office. In 2012, the program plans to expand to include other platforms and test environments.
The NASA FOP program aims to
> 1. Provide reduced-gravity environments, brief periods of weightlessness, and high-altitude atmospheric research for technology development 2. Expand platform opportunities and test environments for technology development 3. Create opportunities for the public, especially the STEM education community, to engage in NASA’s space technology mission and the emerging commercial space industry… Every Flight is an Opportunity
The website describes the various capabilities currently available for commercial parabolic and suborbital flights –
Parabolic: /– G-Force One – ZERO-G /– WhiteKnightTwo – Virgin Galactic
Suborbital: /– Super Mod – Armadilo /– Lynx – XCOR /– New Shepard – Blue Origin /– SpaceShipTwo – Virgin Galactic /– Xaero – Masten
The Campaigns section describes the current series of flights contracted.