Friday, October 14, 2011
Virgin Galactic Lands Deal With NASA
Mojave-based Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight firm started by Richard Branson, said Friday that it has signed a deal with NASA to conduct research missions from its SpaceShipTwo vehicle. Virgin Galactic said that it has been selected by NASA, under the Flight Opportunities Program, to conduct research flights for NASA. The deal is worth up to $4.5M. The company explained that the contract will allow engineers, technologists, and scientific researchers to conduct cutting-edge experiments in space. The deal allows upt o 1300 lbs of scientific experiments to be delivered via the firm's suborbital vehicles.