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Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing Workforce (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
Pages 4-7

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From page 4...
... expressed the sense of Congress that suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital reusable launch vehicles, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and provide opportunities for participants in the programs to acquire skills in systems engineering and systems integration that are critical to maintaining the nation's leadership in space programs. The authoriz ing legislation from Congress stated that Congress believes that it is in the national interest to expand the size of NASA's suborbital research program.
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From page 5...
... . In March 2008, the USRA resolved "that NASA budgets should reflect the historical precedent that at least 1 percent of NASA's total budget be devoted to funding competitive opportunities for hands-on training provided by university missions on sounding rockets, high altitude balloons, remotely piloted vehicles, emerging commercial suborbital flights, and university class spaceflight missions." At its first and last meetings, the committee was briefed in closed session by Lennard Fisk and Joseph Alex ander, respectively committee chair and study director of the NRC's ad hoc Committee on the Role and Scope of Mission-Enabling Activities in NASA's Space and Earth Science Missions, which recently released a report on the appropriate roles for mission-enabling activities and metrics for assessing their effectiveness.
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From page 6...
... Balloon missions can involve international considerations regarding flyover permissions, launching, and payload recovery. NASA operates several research aircraft capable of carrying a suite of instruments to various altitudes from locations around the world.
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From page 7...
... 1.4 WORKFORCE ISSuES Although the Solar and Space Physics Survey Committee recommended in its report, The Sun to the Earth -- and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics (NRC, 2003) , that NASA's suborbital research program be reinvigorated, after a slight improvement the program continued to receive reduced budgets and conducted fewer flights.
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Key Terms

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  • hoc committee

  • flyover permissions
  • launch vehicles
  • international considerations
  • regarding flyover
  • involve international

  • sophisticated suborbital
  • suborbital reusable
  • commercial suborbital
  • context suborbital
  • nasa suborbital

  • suborbital launch
  • suborbital vehicles
  • suborbital flight
  • identified suborbital
  • conducts suborbital

  • reusable suborbital
  • research strategy
  • space programs
  • decadal research
  • carry larger


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