Houston Chronicle by Andrea Leinfelder June 23, 2020
NASA said Tuesday it may fly NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, operators and trainers on suborbital vehicles owned by commercial companies.
It would be the first time since NASA's early human space exploration that the agency has placed humans on suborbital missions, which go into the lower reaches of space and then return to Earth without making a full lap (or orbit) around the planet.
Suborbital flights are expected to be more affordable and accessible than flights to the International Space Station located in low-Earth orbit, and NASA said it could use these suborbital missions for the testing and qualification of spaceflight hardware, human-tended microgravity research, and additional training opportunities for astronauts and other NASA personnel.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/space/article/NASA-to-fly-astronauts-on-commercially-built-15360193.php
