Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin may soon be rocketing NASA scientists to the edge of space
Blue Origin
- NASA is pushing to commercialize space travel to lower the cost of getting astronauts to and from orbit.
- The US space agency is also opening up private access to the International Space Station and, to that end, announced a partnership with Virgin Galactic for training private astronauts.
- NASA on Tuesday also announced that it's standing up a new Suborbital Crew or "SubC" office to fly astronauts, scientists, and other agency employees on suborbital flights to the edge of space.
- Although the agency is seeking information from the industry, leading contenders include Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, which are close to launching paying passengers on suborbital flights.
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Astronauts, stand aside: NASA is booting up a program to fly other types of employees, primarily scientists, in vehicles that can touch the edge of space.
The US agency on Tuesday announced the creation of Suborbital Crew, or SubC, as the new office is called. It's an offshoot of NASA's existing Commercial Crew Program — the effort that, in May, launched astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spaceship.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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