Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to congratulate two of its member companies, Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems, for winning an initial NASA test flight contract as part of the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Program.  The first round of the program, an open competition for small businesses, was formally kicked off by NASA earlier this year with a Request for Quotations for commercial reusable suborbital flight services.

As part of the CRuSR awards, Armadillo Aerospace will perform three flights of their Super-Mod vehicle and Masten Space Systems will perform four flights of their Xaero vehicle, during fall and winter 2010.  These flights “will allow the two companies to perform test flights of their experimental vehicles near the edge of space,” according to NASA.

“As strong advocates for the CRuSR program, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation could not be more pleased to see the program move from concept to first test flights in such a short time period,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.  “It was only six months ago that the Commercial Spaceflight Federation co-organized a science conference at which nearly 300 researchers and educators learned about the potential of the new commercial suborbital vehicles being built by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace, and we are pleased to see that NASA has responded to this interest.”

“We congratulate Masten and Armadillo on being selected for initial test flights and look forward to future rounds of CRuSR selections.  It will be truly exciting to see all the opportunities for low-cost science, education, and research that these commercial suborbital vehicles will enable,” added Alexander.

NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun, whose Space Technology Program will host the CRuSR Office starting in Fiscal Year 2011, stated in a NASA press release that,  ”These two awards are just the beginning of an innovative teaming relationship with industry to provide affordable access to the edge of space while evaluating the microgravity environment for future science and technology experiments,” and added, “CRuSR represents the sort of government-commercial partnership that will facilitate near-space access at affordable costs.”

NASA’s full press release can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/aug/HQ_10-203_CRuSR_Awards.html

Masten Space Systems, based at the Mojave Spaceport in California, demonstrated yesterday the ability to successfully relight the engine of a VTVL (vertical-takeoff vertical-landing) vehicle in midair. This marks the first-ever midair relight for any VTVL rocket-powered vehicle.

“We’re extremely excited and very proud to announce that we now have in-air re-light capability,” stated CEO David Masten in a press release issued by Masten Space Systems. “The ability to turn off our engine, re-ignite it in flight, successfully regain control and land was the next big milestone as we expand our flight envelope to include high altitude flights. Each milestone we hit makes the path to space much clearer.” More information from Masten is available at http://masten-space.com/blog/?p=532 .

In 2009, Masten Space Systems won the $1 million top prize in Level 2 of the NASA Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, by flying a vehicle that could hover for 180 seconds while translating between two pads, and repeating the feat within about 2 hours. Masten Space Systems is developing a series of VTVL vehicles to achieve increasingly high altitudes and achieve low-cost, rapid-turnaround access to the space environment.

Masten’s success comes days after the White House spotlighted NASA’s Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR), which will invest $15 million per year to enable flights of science, research, and educational payloads aboard commercial suborbital vehicles being developed by Masten Space Systems and other companies such as Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace.

In a White House blog post on Tuesday, Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), stated, “Thanks in large part to the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a new generation of commercial suborbital spacecraft has been under development by entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, John Carmack, David Masten, and Jeff Greason. CRuSR—one of several innovative priorities for NASA’s new Chief Technology Officer, Bobby Braun—is building on that momentum. Starting next year, NASA will invest $15 million per year to support a wide range of technology demonstrations, educational experiments, and science payloads on these new vehicles.” The White House OSTP blog post can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/25/nasa-nurtures-new-ideas-near-orbit .

Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that the Southwest Research Institute, which recently committed funding to fly researcher-astronauts and their payloads onboard commercial suborbital spacecraft, has joined the Federation as an Executive Member, having received unanimous approval by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Board of Directors.

Dr. S. Alan Stern, Associate Vice President at SwRI, former top science official at NASA, and chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), stated, “We are strong believers in the power of commercial, next-generation vehicles to advance science and education. We also expect tremendous advances from the newly emerging capability to put scientists in space with their experiments. The CSF is leading the way in this industry, and SwRI is excited to join the CSF and play a strong role in the exciting new era of 21st century space research aboard commercial space flight vehicles.”

Southwest Research Institute is an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization, with more than 3,200 staff who specialize in the creation and transfer of technology in engineering and the physical sciences.

Mark Sirangelo, Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, commented, “On behalf of the member companies of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, we are proud to welcome Southwest Research Institute as an Executive Member. Dr. Stern has done a tremendous job in pushing forward the nascent field of commercial suborbital science. We look forward to continue working with SwRI to further CSF’s goals of promoting the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursuing ever higher levels of safety, and sharing best practices and expertise throughout the industry.”

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, added, “SwRI has a strong reputation and outstanding technical expertise in flying science payloads in space, including on suborbital rockets, and in the next few years SwRI expects to create some of the first suborbital scientist-astronauts in the nation as Dr. Stern and his colleagues train and fly onboard commercial suborbital spacecraft.”

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

About the Southwest Research Institute
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization. The staff of more than 3,200 specializes in the creation and transfer of technology in engineering and the physical sciences. The Institute occupies more than 1,200 acres in San Antonio, Texas, and provides nearly 2 million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops and offices, with satellite offices in locations such as Boulder, Colorado. For more information please visit www.swri.edu or contact Alan Stern at alan@boulder.swri.edu or at 720.240.0163.

# # #

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Masten Space Systems’ Xombie vehicle both completed milestone test flights recently over the Mojave Desert, another step on the path towards commercial suborbital flights to space.

On March 20, Masten Space Systems’ Xombie vehicle, which successfully competed in NASA’s Lunar Lander Challenge last year, reached its highest altitude yet, 1046 feet, during a test launch. The recent flight marks another milestone towards Masten’s stated goal of providing “affordable access to space for a variety of scientific payloads” including “microgravity, space, and earth science experiments.”

On March 22, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, built by Scaled Composites, successfully completed its first “captive carry” atmospheric test flight at Mojave Spaceport attached to the WhiteKnightTwo mother aircraft, remaining aloft for 3 hours. “This is a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin Teams,” said Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites. “The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program.”

Washington, D.C. – Showcasing the growing interest in conducting research and education missions aboard commercial suborbital spacecraft, eleven researchers including members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) successfully completed a training program yesterday at The National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania.

The training included classroom instruction, altitude chamber training, multi-axis centrifuge training for launch and reentry accelerations, and several distraction factor exercises, simulating the conditions that scientist-astronauts will experience during future missions to 100 km altitude.

“For this diverse group of scientists to invest their own time and money for astronaut training is a true testament to the growing excitement behind the science potential of new commercial spacecraft,” said Dr. S. Alan Stern, chairman of SARG and a principal organizer of the scientist training program. “Interest was so high that we’ve already filled up a second class of a dozen scientists for spring 2010.”

“Just as important was the training success rate from this week,” added Stern. “Of the 11 scientists, a diverse group of men and women ranging from 26 to 52 years old, 100% of them passed the centrifuge training, and all but one passed the altitude chamber training. That’s not only impressive, but bodes well for regular researchers being able to accompany their laboratory equipment to space in the years to come.”

“We are constantly impressed with the enthusiasm of the scientific community for the potential of next-generation commercial reusable spacecraft, such as those being developed by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace,” added John Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “We’ve had tremendous interest at recent science workshops we’ve conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the American Geophysical Union annual conference, and the Aerospace Medical Association annual conference, with over 150 scientists attending in total.”

Brienna Henwood, Business Development and Program Manager for Space and Research at The NASTAR Center, stated, “I am thrilled to add the Suborbital Scientist Course to our current offerings. The course is more than just physiology training, it provides an overview about suborbital research and is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the growing opportunities that rest within the commercial spaceflight industry.”

Institutions sending researchers, students and graduate students to the inaugural program included Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boston University, the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences (DMNS), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Central Florida (UCF) and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Washington, D.C.– NASA’s Deputy Administrator, Lori Garver, will be the opening keynote speaker at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on February 18-20, 2010, at which scientists, engineers, educators, and vehicle developers will gather to discuss the research and education benefits of new commercial suborbital spacecraft.

The conference, co-organized by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), will take place in Boulder, Colorado. Deputy Administrator Garver is scheduled to speak on the opening day of the conference on Thursday, February 18.

“We are honored to have Lori Garver keynote the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “The commercial spaceflight industry is excited to work with NASA and other government agencies to utilize new commercial vehicles for science, technology development, workforce development, and education. Companies such as Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, and XCOR Aerospace are developing and testing suborbital vehicles that will enable exciting new scientific and research applications.”

Space scientist and lead conference organizer Dr. S. Alan Stern, chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), stated, “The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference will mark a watershed moment in the growth of research and education applications for these new commercial spacecraft.” Stern, who also serves as Associate Vice President at the Southwest Research Institute, added, “Lori Garver will join an all-star lineup of speakers that includes Dr. Pete Worden, NASA Ames Research Center Director; Dr. George Nield, Associate Administrator of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation; former NASA astronauts Rick Searfoss and Sam Durrance; and a multidisciplinary group of leading scientists, engineers, and educators. We encourage anyone with an interest in this growing new industry to come and join us in Boulder, Colorado next month.”

For more information and to register for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nsrc2010/. A discount for early pre-registration is available through Friday, January 15, 2010.

Lori B. Garver has served as Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since July 17, 2009. As deputy administrator, Garver is NASA’s second in command. She is responsible to the administrator for providing overall leadership, planning, and policy direction for the agency. Garver represents NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads of government agencies, international organizations, and external organizations and communities. She also oversees the work of NASA’s functional offices, including the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of General Counsel and Office of Strategic Communications.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Commercial spaceflight is featured in this week’s cover story of Aviation Week and Space Technology, which has selected “The Space Entrepreneur” as its 2009 Person of the Year.

“Space entrepreneurs had a big influence on aerospace in 2009,” write Aviation Week editors Frank Morring and Guy Norris, “although it does not begin to compare with the impact they are likely to have in years to come.”

“After receiving more than $1 billion in private capital, NASA has recently awarded space entrepreneurs with multi-billion dollar contracts for transporting cargo to the International Space Station, and may rely on them to transport astronauts once the space shuttle fleet is retired,” Aviation Week noted in a press release accompanying the cover story.

“We’re at the beginning of a new era in access to space… an era of commercial human spaceflight,” added former astronaut Tom Henricks, president of Aviation Week, in the press release. “It’s exciting that entrepreneurs are pursuing opportunities in space. Only about five hundred people have been to space in the past half century. AVIATION WEEK is proud to recognize these innovative individuals for their enormous contributions to making space accessible to many more in the near future.”

The Aviation Week cover image features Masten Space Systems ’ CEO, Dave Masten, whose company recently won $1.15 million in the NASA Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge for successful flights of its vertical-takeoff vertical-landing vehicles.  The Aviation Week article also mentions the suborbital science workshops that have been organized by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation to discuss the science, research, and education applications of commercial spaceflight.

(The cover story and accompanying press release are available online from Aviation Week.)

Image credit: Aviation Week and Space Technology

Popular Science is featuring the commercial spaceflight industry as its January 2010 cover story, in an article titled “The New Space Rush.”  “By the measure of private investment,” says Popular Science, “there is clearly more market optimism than ever before about private industry’s ability to do the job [of Low Earth Orbit transportation], for both passengers and payloads.”  Click here to read the full Popular Science article online.

Article author Sam Verhovek emphasizes the partnership between NASA and the private sector.  He writes that commercial spaceflight providers can “handle comparatively short-range tasks while NASA focuses on the farther reaches of space.”  The commercial spaceflight sector strongly supports NASA’s mission of exploration, and believes that NASA and commercial activities are complementary, not competitive.  Commercial spaceflight in Low Earth Orbit will help enable NASA to focus its resources on the worthwhile endeavor of exploration beyond Earth orbit.  Reducing the U.S. reliance on Russia to launch American astronauts, supporting full utilization of the Space Station, opening the space frontier to more individuals, and helping to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers are among the other key aspects of this growing industry.

Bretton Alexander, the President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, is quoted in the Popular Science article saying, ”The rationale here is that NASA needs to do the hard stuff and leave the simpler stuff—granted, human spaceflight is not an easy thing, but it is something we’ve been doing for 50 years—if it wants to go beyond.  NASA can actually focus on doing the cool stuff [beyond Low Earth Orbit] and over the long term, you have an industry that is not only focused on NASA. NASA becomes a user, not the sole provider.”

Image credit: Popular Science

Astronauts, researchers, educators, senior government officials including the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Dr. Pete Worden, and the head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Dr. George Nield, and representatives from commercial space companies and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, will be among the speakers at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on February 18-20, 2010. The agenda and speaker list for the conference, which will take place in Boulder, Colorado, was publicly released today and is available for download by clicking here [pdf].

The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which is being convened by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), is intended to allow scientists, engineers, and educators to learn about the research and education capabilities of commercial suborbital spacecraft, and to hear from this broad research community on potential research and education applications and user requirements.

The list of sessions for the conference is as follows:

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
5:00 pm: Welcome Reception

Thursday, February 18, 2010
8:30 am: Opening Session – Welcome and Keynotes
10:30 am: Research and Education Capabilities of Next-Generation Suborbital Vehicles Session I
12:15 pm: Press conference
1:30 pm: Research and Education Capabilities of Next-Generation Suborbital Vehicles Session II
3:30 pm: Payload Specialist and Researchers/Educator Roles in Next-Gen Suborbital Missions
4:30 pm: Student Suborbital Experiment Proposals
4:30 pm: Commercial Aspects/Other
7:30 pm: Public Lectures at the University of Colorado – Fiske Planetarium

Friday, February 19, 2010
8:00 am: Astronomy, Solar Physics, and Planetary Science Session I
8:00 am: Microgravity Physics Session I
8:00 am: Technology Payloads and Symposium on Deployable Vehicles Session I
10:30 am: Astronomy, Solar Physics, and Planetary Science Session II
10:30 am: Education and Public Outreach Session I (Outreach)
10:30 am: Atmospheric, Ionospheric, and Auroral Science Session I
2:00 pm: Life Sciences Session I
2:00 pm: Education and Public Outreach Session II (Education)
2:00 pm: Technology Payloads and Symposium on Deployable Vehicles Session II
7:00 pm: NASA Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Panel Discussion

Saturday, February 20, 2010
8:30 am: Life Sciences Session II
8:30 am: Microgravity Physics Session II
8:30 am: Atmospheric, Ionospheric, and Auroral Science Session II
10:30 am: Desired Next-Generation Vehicle Attributes for Research and Education Missions
11:30 am: Closing Session

To register for the conference, please click here.

SpaceShipTwo, intended to carry passengers and scientific payloads into suborbital space, is being unveiled today by Virgin Galactic in Mojave, California. SpaceShipTwo was developed for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic by the engineering firm Scaled Composites, a team that includes aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan.

This reusable spacecraft will take two pilots and six passengers to space after first being carried aloft by the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, which has already been undergoing test flights for a year. SpaceShipTwo will conduct flights of passengers and science payloads to space from Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, stated, “This is truly a momentous day. The team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, commented, “Just a few years ago, SpaceShipOne became the first new U.S. human spacecraft to be unveiled since the Space Shuttle over twenty years ago. Today’s rollout of SpaceShipTwo, the first human spacecraft built for routine commercial operations, is an even more exciting milestone for the commercial spaceflight sector.”

Alexander added, “SpaceShipTwo marks the start of a new wave of commercial spacecraft that will provide frequent and low-cost access to space for people and science payloads.”

According to Virgin Galactic, “The emergence of new commercial space companies like Virgin Galactic will be an engine for employment, growth and the creation of a new technology and science base in the United States… the Virgin Galactic project alone is creating significant opportunities for employment in both the company itself and with suppliers in both California and New Mexico. Approximately 600 people are now working on activities relating to the project and it is estimated that this figure will rise to over 1,100 jobs during the peak of the construction phase at the space port and through the introduction of the commercial space vehicles into regular astronaut service.”

The precursor vehicle to SpaceShipTwo, the SpaceShipOne vehicle unveiled in 2003, became the first private human spacecraft to reach space in 2004 and won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for commercial spaceflight.

Image credit (showing WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo): Virgin Galactic