Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic commercial space flight program will include not just space tourists but scientists who will conduct research experiments, the organization announced Monday.
Virgin Galactic signed a contract with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which the company said was the first agreement to fly scientists into space. As part of the contract, SwRI has made deposits for two researchers to fly on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, at $200,000 per person.
SwRI also plans to make similar arrangements for six additional scientists, for a total of $1.6 million, Virgin Galactic said. SwRI will fly its own researchers, as well as fly the payloads and personnel of other American researchers who do not have spaceflight experience.
"Virgin Galactic will be able to offer researchers flights to space that are unprecedented in frequency and cost," George Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement. "Science flights will be an important growth area for the company in the years to come, building on the strong commercial success already demonstrated by deposits received from over 400 individuals for Virgin's space experience."
No timeline for when this might happen was provided. Branson said last year that he plans to be taking passengers into space in nine to 18 months. In preparation, Virgin Galactic recently unveiled Spaceport America, the first commercial space port, in Upham, N.M.
In December, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon test capsule launched successfully from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning. It was the first successful launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and another step for the future of commercial space flight.
NASA's COTS program will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station. In 2008, NASA awarded the company, also known as SpaceX, a launch services contract that allowed it to compete for missions using the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles. NASA is set to retire the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, after which SpaceX said it will make at least 12 flights to carry cargo to and from the ISS.
In September, Boeing announced that it is partnering with Virginia-based Space Adventures to sell commercial space flights. The CST-100 spacecraft can fit seven people, and is expected to be operational by 2015.