NASAfacts

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Blue Origin New Shepard NS-10 crew capsule landing. 

Credit: Blue Origin

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program facilitates rapid 

demonstration of promising technologies for space 

exploration and the expansion of space commerce 

through suborbital flights from industry partners. The 

program matures capabilities needed for NASA missions while strategically investing in the growth of 

the U.S. commercial spaceflight industry. Flight Opportunities is funded by NASA’s Space Technology 

Mission Directorate (STMD).

Demonstrating and maturing 

promising space technologies

Flight demonstrations on suborbital vehicles take 

technologies from ground-based laboratories into 

relevant space-like environments to increase technology readiness and validate feasibility while reducing costs and technical risks of future missions. 

For the purposes of maturing technologies for future 

space exploration, a relevant environment typically 

means exposure to suborbital space. Often referred 

to as “the edge of space,” this environment is usually 

at an altitude at least 50 miles above sea level and/

or replicates some of the conditions encountered in 

space, such as:

• Microgravity conditions, including weightlessness

• Limited re-entry conditions

• Challenging landing conditions

• High-altitude solar exposure

• Radiation

• Extreme temperatures and vacuum

• Intense spacecraft vibrations

By understanding how their payloads respond to 

these conditions, researchers are able to confirm 

their designs or make necessary refinements and improvements to mature their experiments before moving on to much more expensive orbital deployments, 

such as small satellites or lunar missions.

Leveraging commercial vehicles

Flight Opportunities facilitates the purchase of commercial flight services for the demonstration of qualified technologies on rocket-powered suborbital 

vehicles, high-altitude balloons, and parabolic aircraft.

Rocket-powered vehicles

These platforms include both suborbital reusable 

launch vehicles (sRLVs) that reach high altitudes 

and lander vehicles that specialize in entry, descent, 

and landing (EDL) technologies closer to the ground. 

Both of these classes of vehicles are typically recoverable and reusable after launch. 

High-altitude balloons

Large balloon systems reach a minimum altitude 

of 16.5 miles and can typically sustain the longest 

duration of the suborbital platforms—hours, days, 

or even weeks at a time. This makes them ideal 

for payloads that benefit from extended periods of 

data collection. 

Parabolic aircraft

These modified airplanes achieve periods of variable 

gravity through a series of maneuvers called parabolas. These aircraft are ideal for demonstrating technologies that need to operate in zero gravity. 

Flight Opportunities
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Armstrong Flight Research Center

P.O. Box 273

Edwards, California 93523

www.nasa.gov/flightopportunities

www.nasa.gov

FS-2019-03-102 AFRC

Supporting both external and 

government researchers

External researchers can compete for flight funding through 

NASA’s Tech Flights solicitation. Awardees receive a grant or 

enter into a cost-share agreement, through which they can 

select a commercial flight provider that meets their needs 

for demonstrating a promising space-based payload. These 

investments help advance technologies of interest to NASA, 

while supporting commercial flight platform providers and expanding utilization of low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The solicitation is open to U.S.-based non-government organizations (e.g., academia, research institutes, private sector) 

and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers 

(with the exception of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) as 

well as non-U.S. researchers partnering with a U.S.-based 

entity as the lead.

Transitioning to orbital missions

Often, technologies matured through Flight Opportunities 

transition to missions in LEO that allow further validation 

of technical readiness beyond the threshold of suborbital 

demonstration. 

Facilitating in-space manufacturing

An additive manufacturing (3D printing) facility designed 

by Made In Space was matured through Flight Opportunities and is now installed on the International Space Station. 

Manufacturing of critical components in space can reduce 

operational costs and improve on-site repair capabilities for 

long-duration human exploration missions.

Enabling simpler planetary sample collection

Flight Opportunities facilitated a successful demonstration by 

Honeybee Robotics of its PlanetVac planetary sample collection system in the Mojave Desert, where ground conditions 

resemble those that researchers expect to encounter on planetary bodies. PlanetVac successfully collected more than 300 

grams of simulated regolith and NASA is now considering its 

feasibility for a future Mars sample return mission.

Testing a mechanically deployable heat shield

NASA’s Ames Research Center successfully demonstrated 

its Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology 

(ADEPT) through suborbital testing with Flight Opportunities. 

The foldable, umbrella-like heat shield opens to make a round, 

rigid structure with a diameter larger than the rocket it fits into. 

ADEPT could enable future NASA missions that require extralarge aeroshells to protect spacecraft destined to land on the 

surface of other planets—without requiring larger rocket fairings.

Honeybee Robotics’ PlanetVac attached to Masten Space Systems’ Xodiac 

lander. Credit: NASA

Parabolic flights enabled maturation of Made In Space’s additive 

manufacturing facility. Credit: NASA

Ames researchers tested ADEPT via a flight on UP Aerospace’s 

SpaceLoft rocket. Credit: NASA