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Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing Workforce (2010) / Chapter Skim
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7 Potential Opportunities for Commercial Suborbital Capabilities
Pages 60-63

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From page 60...
... There are several organizations currently devel oping commercial suborbital spacecraft with a range of capabilities, including Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace. Although their ultimate success is uncertain, it is encouraging to see that these companies have begun to provide access to scientific investigators even during their developmental stages.
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From page 61...
... ; Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft prototype VMS Eve (courtesy of Bill Deaver, Mojave Desert News) ; Blue Origin's Goddard vehicle (courtesy of Blue Origin LLC)
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From page 62...
... However, the committee noted that while opportunities do exist for entry-level education and public outreach activities, outsourcing to commercial suborbital companies does little in the way of training the next generation of systems engineers and contributing to viable workforce development. A hallmark of the planned commercial suborbital program is the simple, easy access to a microgravity environment requiring only minimal consideration of the larger challenges of spaceflight the hard part has already been done: the environment is so benign that many of the challenges of spaceflight do not apply (e.g., autonomous execution, thermal stress, radiation, high-g launch environments, high reliability, and so on)
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From page 63...
... Finding: Given that the commercial suborbital capability represents an order-of-magnitude increase in providing a microgravity environment for investigation over traditional parabolic and drop tower technologies, the committee believes that commercial suborbital research platforms should be seriously considered by the current Committee on the Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, which deals with the microgravity research program. Commercial Element of Recommendation 5: NASA should continue to monitor commercial suborbital space developments.
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Key Terms

  • suborbital program
  • suborbital platforms
  • suborbital spacecraft
  • suborbital vehicles
  • suborbital capabilities

  • virgin galactic
  • suborbital space
  • commercial spaceflight
  • reusable launch
  • spaceflight federation

  • providing additional
  • launch vehicles
  • flight rates
  • increased flight
  • microgravity environment

  • flight access
  • advancing technology
  • suborbital research
  • operational risks
  • blue origin

  • frequent flights
  • suborbital capability
  • federation recently
  • commercial vehicles
  • research platforms

  • flight mechanics
  • seriously considered
  • easy access
  • suborbital spaceflight
  • aerospace training


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