NASA Provides Update on Venture-class Launch Services

Excerpt:  “NASA currently is working with several commercial companies as part of the agency’s VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) launch services contract, providing new opportunities for science, and technology payloads…. Building on NASA’s previous procurement efforts to foster development of a growing U.S. commercial launch market, VADR provides Federal Aviation Administration -licensed commercial launch services for payloads that can tolerate higher risk. By using a lower level of mission assurance, and commercial best practices for launching rockets, these highly flexible contracts help broaden access to space through lower launch costs.”