Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nasa Flight Opportunities Program (Fop) Platform Tradeoffs Analysis, Stephanie Kugler, Dougal Maclise

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) exemplifies NASA’s shift in policy from a public driven space industry towards an emphasis on public-private partnerships. The Payloads team, as part of FOP, is responsible for soliciting, selecting and shepherding payloads that require flight testing in order to mature technologies, not only to reduce risk in a deep space or manned space missions, but also to develop critical technologies with multiple applications in space. Several companies have been awarded contracts to provide these flight opportunities and each have unique capabilities to fly payloads in environments that closely imitate the environment of space missions. As …