NASA Loans Out Engine for Suborbital Spaceflight Tests

摘要

NASA is loaning a rocket engine to Rocketplane Ltd., the Oklahoma City-based firm that intends to carry paying passengers into suborbital space starting in 2007. Under a Space Act Agreement negotiated with NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Rocketplane is borrowing a single RS-88 engine that the company says it plans to use to get a head start on ground- and flight-testing the four-seat Rocketplane XP vehicle.