by Dave Fischer
Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program
NASA has awarded $475,000 as part of its program to development recoverable launch vehicles to be used for small payloads going to “near-space,” the region of Earth’s atmosphere between 65,000 and 350,000 feet. The awards were made under the CRuSR program (Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program). NASA’s press release states:
The CRuSR program fosters the development of commercial reusable transportation to near space. The overall goal of the program is regular, frequent and predictable access to near-space at a reasonable cost with easy recovery of intact payloads.
The awards were made to Armadillo Aerospace, home to the Super-Mod vehicle, and Masten Space Systems, home to the Xaero vehicle.
Armadillo will fly three missions from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Two are schedule for an altitude of nine miles each, and the third is scheduled for 25 miles (132,000 feet – 40,200 meters).
Masten will fly four missions this winter from the Mojave Spaceport in California. Two of the flights are slated for three miles and two are slated for 18 miles (95,000 feet – 29,000 meters).
Masten Xaero vehicle
