NASA Selects Experimental Commercial Suborbital Flight Payloads

Jan. 22, 2013

David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730
david.steitz@nasa.gov

Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-4789
rachel.hoover@nasa.gov

Leslie Williams
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
661-276-3893
leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 13-027

NASA SELECTS EXPERIMENTAL COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL FLIGHT PAYLOADS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected 13
cutting-edge space technology payloads for flights on commercial
reusable launch vehicles, balloons and a commercial parabolic
aircraft in 2013 and 2014. The flights will allow participants to
demonstrate their technologies to the edge of space and back, before
committing them to the harsh and unforgiving conditions of
spaceflight.

The vehicles that will carry these payloads will include Las
Vegas-based Zero-G Corporation's parabolic airplane and high altitude
balloons from Near Space Corp. in Tillamook, Ore. They also will
include reusable launch vehicles from Masten Space Systems in Mojave,
Calif.; UP Aerospace in Highlands Ranch, Colo.; and Virgin Galactic
in Las Cruces, N.M.

"These payloads represent more real progress in our goal of fostering
a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms
-- access to near space that provides the innovation needed for
cutting-edge space technology research and development," said Michael
Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. "American
leadership in the commercial suborbital flight market will prove to
benefit technology development across NASA, universities, industries
and in our new technology economy."

A wide range of innovative payloads are represented in this selection.
The Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation System payload from the
University of Maryland in College Park will use the parabolic flights
to perform preliminary tests on a technology that seeks to hold a
cluster of satellites in formation using magnetic fields.

A payload from Astrobotic Technology Inc. of Pittsburgh will be tested
on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle that takes off and lands
vertically. The demonstration will examine how the company's
automated landing system may enable future unmanned missions to land
on another planet or the rocky and hazardous terrain of an asteroid.

Nine of the selected payloads will fly on parabolic aircraft flights,
which provide brief periods of weightlessness. Four will fly on
suborbital reusable launch vehicles. Two will be carried on
high-altitude balloons that fly to 100,000 feet. One will fly on a
vertical launch and landing suborbital vehicle. One payload will fly
on both a suborbital launch vehicle and a high-altitude balloon.

The selected payloads, listed with their principal investigators, are:


Flight on a parabolic aircraft:
-- "Structural Dynamics Test of STACER Antenna Deployment in
Microgravity," Kerri Cahoy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in Cambridge
-- "UAH ChargerSat-2 Parabolic Flight Testing," Francis Wessling of
the University of Alabama in Huntsville
-- "High Eccentric Resistive Overload (HERO) Device Demonstration
during Parabolic Flight," Aaron Weaver of NASA's Glenn Research
Center in Cleveland
-- "Assessing Otolith-Organ Function with Vestibular Evoked Myogenic
Potentials (VEMPs) in Parabolic Flight," Mark Shelhamer of Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore
-- "On the Performance of a Nanocatalyst-based Direct Ammonia Alkaline
Fuel Cell (DAAFC) under Microgravity Conditions for Water Reclamation
and Energy Applications," Carlos Cabrera of the University of Puerto
Rico in San Juan
-- "Dynamic and Static Behavior of a Flexible Fuel Hose in Zero-G,"
Allyson Buker of Jackson and Tull in Washington
-- "In-Flight Lab Analysis Technology Demonstration in Reduced
Gravity," Emily Nelson of Glenn
-- "Caging System for Drag-free Satellites," Robert Byer of Stanford
University in California
-- "Reduced Gravity Flight Demonstration of the Resonant Inductive
Near-field Generation System," Raymond Sedwick of the University of
Maryland in College Park
Flight on a vertical launch and landing suborbital vehicle:
-- "Autolanding for Robotic Precursor Missions," Kevin Peterson of
Astrobotic Technology Inc. in Pittsburgh
Flight on a high altitude balloon:
-- "Deployable Rigid Adjustable Guided Final Landing Approach
Pinions," Jonathan Powers of Masten Space Systems Inc. in Mojave,
Calif.
-- "Guided Parafoil High Altitude Research," Allen Lowry of Airborne
Systems North America of CA Inc. in Santa Ana, Calif.
Flights on multiple platforms:
-- "Flight Testing of a UAT ADS-B Transmitter Prototype for Commercial
Space Transportation Using Reusable Launch Vehicles," Richard
Stansbury of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach,
Fla.

NASA manages the Flight Opportunities Program manifest, matching
payloads with flights, and will pay for payload integration and the
flight costs for the selected payloads. No funds are provided for the
development of these payloads.

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., manages the
Flight Opportunities Program for NASA's Space Technology Program in
Washington. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.,
manages the payload activities for the program. NASA's Space
Technology Program is innovating, developing, testing and flying
hardware for use in NASA's future missions.

For more information on the Flight Opportunities program, visit:

http://flightopportunities.nasa.gov


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