Virgin Galactic Holdings has announced the signing of a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Johnson Space Center, encouraging “commercial participation in orbital human spaceflight” to the International Space Station (ISS).

Under the agreement, Virgin Galactic will develop a private orbital astronaut readiness programme.

The company states that the program will include identifying candidates interested in purchasing private astronaut missions to the ISS, the procurement of transportation to the ISS, on-orbit resources and ground resources.

Apparently, NASA is seeing greater demand for use of the ISS for scientific and technological R&D and commercial activity.

The company states:

As part of this partnership, NASA will leverage Virgin Galactic’s commercial expertise and industry knowledge. Virgin Galactic will also contribute end-to-end program management and integrated astronaut training packages for private passengers, tailored to meet the needs for a commercial orbital space flight experience. The partnership also serves as a pathfinder for the ISS National Laboratory by demonstrating additional involvement by the commercial sector in human spaceflight, and may lead to commercial participants conducting research and other commercial activities aboard the ISS.

The company has already developed a customised Future Astronaut Readiness program for its customers flying out of Spaceport America in New Mexico, it highlights.

Virgin Galactic’s existing space experiences could play an important role in the training for orbital travel, allowing passengers to become familiar with the environment in space, such as G-forces and zero-G, the company claims.

The New Mexico centre will be used for some elements of the training programme, using the facilities designed for private astronaut training.

“We are excited to partner with NASA on this private orbital spaceflight program, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflight platform, but also offer our space training infrastructure to NASA and other agencies,” said George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic.

“Based on the unsurpassed levels of spaceflight customer commitments we have secured to date, we are proud to share that insight in helping to grow another market for the new space economy. We want to bring the planetary perspective to many thousands of people.”