Virgin Galactic signs private space travel deal with Nasa
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic said today it has signed a deal with Nasa to develop a programme to promote private missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
Shares in Virgin Galactic spiked more than 14 per cent on the news.
Virgin will help identify and train new candidates to become astronauts for commercial space flight, it said in a statement.
Elements of the training will include using existing Virgin Galactic facilities in New Mexico to help astronauts become familiar with the environment in space, such as G-forces and zero-G.
Nasa will also be working with space firm Axiom on the programme, which previously signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to take a batch of passengers to the ISS next year.
“We are excited to partner with Nasa on this private orbital spaceflight programme, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflight platform, but also offer our space training infrastructure to Nasa and other agencies,” said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides.
“Based on the unsurpassed levels of spaceflight customer commitments we have secured to date, we are proud to share that insight in helping to grow another market for the new space economy. We want to bring the planetary perspective to many thousands of people.”
The announcement follows the first successful private space flight with human astronauts on board from SpaceX last month, marking off a major milestone in the journey towards commercial space travel.
Virgin Galactic is also working with Branson’s Virgin Group to develop super high-speed high-altitude air travel.