Virgin Galactic, NASA to Develop Private Missions Program for ISS

(Reuters) - Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc said on Monday it has signed up with NASA to develop a program to promote private missions to the International Space Station (ISS), sending the shares of the company up about 16%.

As part of its agreement with the Johnson Space Center, the space tourism company will identify candidates interested in buying tickets for private rides to space in orbital-grade vehicles from other companies, and develop training packages under its “astronaut readiness program.”

The company competes with billionaire-backed ventures such as Amazon.com Inc’s Blue Origin that are vying to usher in a new era of space tourism, racing to be the first to offer suborbital flights to civilian space travelers.

Virgin Galactic offers zero-gravity experiences to customers with its centerpiece SpaceShipTwo plane and has long-term point-to-point travel plans to quickly transport passengers from city to city at near-space altitudes.

This is the second agreement between Virgin Galactic and the U.S. space agency. In May, the two entered an agreement to develop ‘high-Mach’ aircraft for potential civilian use.

For NASA, the private partnerships are helping it revive its own human space missions. Last month, Elon Musk’s SpaceX ended NASA’s nine-year hiatus by delivering two astronauts to the ISS.