Suborbital Research

Introduction

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) seeks to advance innovative technologies and cutting-edge scientific investigations for its wide range of current and future missions. To achieve this, SMD provides opportunities for conducting investigations involving suborbital flight testing via the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) solicitation to collect unique scientific data as well as demonstrate and advance research and/or technology payloads.

To complement and augment the current capabilities available via the traditional NASA-provided suborbital vehicles, SMD has incorporated a suite of commercial suborbital capabilities (Figure 1) into the ROSES solicitation and other opportunities via the STMD Flight Opportunities program. This expanded portfolio offers researchers additional suborbital platform options, expanded capabilities, and more frequent flight cadence to enable innovative suborbital investigations, experiments and technology testing.

Why Suborbital Research?

Suborbital flights are an extension of ground-based laboratories. These platforms offer numerous advantages and opportunities that enable researchers to collect valuable data, as well as advance their experiment and/or technology payloads for demanding space missions. Some of the advantages of suborbital flights include the ability to:

1. Collect in-situ scientific data for particular space environments or phenomena. 
2. Evaluate the performance and feasibility of payloads within relevant environments that cannot be readily replicated through ground-based testing.  
3. Collect valuable performance data to advance the overall Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 
4. Refine the experiment/technology in order to significantly reduce technical risks and help ensure success of future missions. 

To this end, suborbital flight testing can serve as an invaluable opportunity for conducting advanced scientific investigations as well as maturing novel technologies and developing robust payloads. for potential mission infusion. 

Types of Suborbital Flight Platforms

ROSES provides researchers with access to various types of suborbital flight-testing platforms: high-altitude balloons, rocket-powered vehicles, and aircraft flying parabolic profiles. Suborbital flights are currently available through commercial flight providers via NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and through NASA-provided platforms. 

High-Altitude Balloons

Large balloon systems reach a nominal altitude of 30 km or more, can maintain long duration flights (e.g., hours, days, weeks, or months at a time) and in some cases provide station-keeping capabilities. This makes them ideal for payloads that benefit from extended periods of data collection and that may require exposure to the environment for data and sample collections. These systems are advantageous for conducting research experiments and testing new technologies. Some examples include:

• Sun-sensitive and solar instruments
• Astrophysical observation instruments
• Earth-observation instruments
• Other instruments and technologies that may benefit from high-altitude observations (e.g., Mar's surface, atmospheric and space observations) or drop tests

Rocket-Powered Vehicles

A variety of rocket-powered vehicles can reach altitudes between approximately 80-1400 km, provide two minutes or more of continuous microgravity, and allow for either a protected pressurized environment or full exposure to space conditions, and in some cases, payload ejection. Their characteristics allow for numerous applications, including:

• Conducting Earth science, geospace, heliophysics, astrophysics, solar and planetary investigations
• Testing new technologies such as autonomous robotic systems, instruments, and sensors
• Evaluating in-space manufacturing techniques
• Collecting in-situ measurements for instrument validation/calibration

Suborbital Platforms Available Through ROSES

For the latest information about the commercial flight providers under contract with NASA through the Flight Opportunities program, visit our Flight Providers site.

1. NASA-Contracted Commercial Flight Providers

Additional information is available directly from the listed commercial flight providers, as well as the NASA Flight Opportunities program and the Guide to Commercial Suborbital Flight Providers for Flight Opportunities.

2. Additional Commercial Flight Providers (Non-NASA Contracted)

The ROSES solicitation allows proposers to also leverage non-NASA contracted commercial flight providers that can fulfill the suborbital research flight needs of their investigations. Details regarding the use of these flight providers can be found in the “Proposer-Provided Commercial Suborbital Launch Vehicles” section of the solicitation.

3. NASA-Provided Suborbital Platforms – High Altitude Balloons

The NASA Balloon Program Office at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility manages NASA’s scientific balloon program. The program provides high-altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations. These investigations include fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Scientific balloons also provide a platform for the demonstration of promising new instrument and spacecraft technologies that enable or enhance the objectives for the Science Mission Directorate Strategic Plan.

4. NASA-Provided Suborbital Platforms – Sounding Rockets

The NASA Sounding Rocket Program Office (SRPO) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility currently operates multiple sounding rocket launch vehicles with varying capabilities, including attaining altitudes from 100 to over 1,400 km, and capable of accepting payloads weighing up to 1,500 pounds. All of these vehicles are routinely used for conducting scientific investigations and technology testing. For further details regarding these vehicles and their individual capabilities, researchers are encouraged to review the NASA Sounding Rocket Program User Handbook.

How can researchers access suborbital flight testing?

One of the first steps involved in conducting scientific investigations or technology testing via suborbital testing requires prospective applicants to carefully evaluate the requirements of their payloads and desired flight environment and then compare these requirements with the capabilities offered by the NASA and commercial platforms discussed above. Prospective proposers are encouraged to contact the various NASA programs presented on this page to discuss the flight-testing capabilities. In addition, commercial flight providers under contract with NASA offer a Payload User Guide (PUG) with detailed information regarding their specific vehicle(s), capabilities, and flight environments, in addition to compatible payload parameters such as mass, volume, power availability, etc. This information will enable investigators to determine if their payload will be compatible with a particular suborbital platform. 

If the capabilities offered by the NASA-provided traditional platforms and the NASA-contracted commercial suborbital platforms prove suitable to the needs of the researcher, there are a variety of funding opportunities for supporting suborbital investigations. These include:

• Science Mission Directorate
  • ROSES Solicitation
    • B.9 Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space (H-LCAS)D.3 Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA)Additional information can be found in the ROSES 2023 APRA & H-LCAS Informational Webinar (September 2023) (YouTube).
  • Direct flight application through the NASA program 
• Student Opportunities
  • RockOn! Sounding Rocket Program
  • High-Altitude Student Platform Opportunity (HASP)
  • Cubes in Space
• Space Technology Mission Directorate
  • Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) – Post Phase II
• NASA-Wide
  • EPSCoR Suborbital Flight Opportunity 

Additional Tools and Resources for Researchers

Researchers are encouraged to leverage tools and resources that currently exist for supporting suborbital flight testing. These include:

1. Suborbital platform flight simulators: In some cases, flight providers may be able to provide prospective researchers with flight simulators of a particular platform to assist in the process of determining vehicle suitability for the researcher’s prospective payload, as well as assisting during the flight hardware design, buildup, and testing phases leading up to the suborbital flight. Researchers can contact the NASA Balloon Program Office, the NASA Sounding Rocket Program Office, and the various NASA-contracted commercial flight providers to obtain further details regarding their vehicles, characteristics, and capabilities.
2. Monthly Webinars: The NASA Flight Opportunities program Community of Practice initiative offers monthly webinars (live sessions are recorded) dedicated to suborbital flight testing. These webinars encompass a wide range of topics, including subject matter experts highlighting best practices for conducting research during flights, optimizing the experience for current and prospective researchers, and communicating lessons learned by researchers, among many others.
3. Previously Funded Suborbital Research Projects: The NASA Flight Opportunities Technology Portfolio contains a detailed list of funded flight projects and associated abstracts that encompass multiple disciplines. Additionally, yearly ROSES solicitations listed in NSPIRES also include links to lists and abstracts of funded proposals.
4. NASA Balloon User Community: the NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO) created the NASA Balloon Working Group that enables researchers to discuss current and past missions. Additional information regarding this working group is available directly from this program office.
5. NASA Sounding Rocket User Community: the NASA Sounding Rocket Program Office (SRPO) created the NASA Sounding Rocket Working Group that provides researchers with a web portal highlighting information regarding current and past missions.