Institute to Provide On-Board Space Payload Specialists

SpaceShipTwo (Virgin Galactic)

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas says today it agreed to send scientists as payload specialists aboard eight suborbital flights, some to altitudes greater than 350,000 feet. SwRI researchers will also fly at least six high altitude missions flown by XCOR Corporation.

At least two SwRI researchers will fly into space aboard the world’s first commercial crewed spaceship, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which carries two pilots and up to six researchers. SwRI also has plans to later fly a dedicated six-seat research mission in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is the commercial version of SpaceShipOne which won the Ansari X Prize in 2004 as the world’s first privately built crewed space vehicle.

As part of the contract, Virgin Galactic says SwRI made deposits for two researchers to fly on Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, with the intent to make similar arrangements for an additional six seats for a total value of $1.6 million.

XCOR Corporation’s Lynx Mark I high-altitude rocket plane, which carries a pilot and a single researcher at altitudes up to 200,000 feet. Lynx I is currently in development, with test flights expected to begin in 2012.

SwRI says that on these flights, its payload specialists will conduct biomedical, microgravity, and astronomical imaging experiments developed at SwRI. The SpaceShipTwo and Lynx I are built to carry data collection systems and allow researchers to conduct their experiments either inside a pressurized cabin environment or externally. The flights are expected to give The SwRI crews direct exposure to the upper atmosphere or, aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, outer space itself.

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