The President’s 2010 National Space Policy:
“A robust and competitive commercial space sector is vital to continued progress in space. The United States is committed to encouraging and facilitating the growth of a U.S. commercial space sector that supports U.S. needs, is globally competitive, and advances U.S. leadership in the generation of new markets and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.”
Flight Opportunities directly answers the call of the President’s policy through the acquisition of suborbital launch services on commercial suborbital launch vehicles. By purchasing flight opportunities on U.S. commercial vehicles the Flight Opportunities program is encouraging and facilitating the growth of this market while simultaneously providing pathways to advance the technology readiness of a wide range of new launch vehicle and space technologies.
One of the greatest challenges NASA faces in incorporating advanced technologies into future missions is bridging the mid-technology readiness level (TRL) (4-7) gap (or “valley of death”), between component or prototype testing in a lab or ground facility setting, and the final infusion of a new technology into critical path exploration or science mission development. To cross this gap, the proposed new technology must pass system level testing in a relevant operational environment. Maturing a space technology to flight readiness status through relevant environment testing is a significant challenge from cost, schedule, and technical risk perspectives.
FO has its lineage from the former Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) of FY09, specifically the Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology (FAST) project and the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) project. The FAST and CRuSR activities are continued within the FO Program, as the parabolic and suborbital, flight campaigns, respectively. The flights will provide opportunities to expose new technologies to low-g environments and/or high altitude environments. The intent is to demonstrate and mature various technologies for future applications. These emerging technologies will come from the nine other programs within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, from the other Mission Directorates and external sources (other Government Agencies, Academia, and Commercial Industries.
The NASA Flight Opportunities (FO) Program has been established as a part of the Space Technologies Mission Directorate (STMD) to rapidly develop, demonstrate and infuse revolutionary, high-payoff technologies through transparent, collaborative partnerships, expanding the boundaries of the aerospace enterprise by providing the nation’s investments in space technologies to make a difference in the world around us. FO focuses on maturation of technologies that are of benefit to multiple customers, to flight readiness status with an outcome of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or higher. These crosscutting capabilities are those that advance multiple future aerospace missions, including flight projects where near-space or in-space demonstration is needed before the capability can transition to direct mission application. Maturing technologies to a higher TRL status through relevant flight opportunities testing is a significant challenge from both a cost and risk perspective.
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