WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- NASA and the U.S. Air Force say they are developing a "technology roadmap" for a commercial reusable launch vehicle, or RLV, industry.
"NASA is committed to stimulating the emerging commercial reusable launch vehicle industry," said Lori Garver, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's deputy administrator. "There is a natural evolutionary path from today's emerging commercial suborbital RLV industry to growing and developing the capability to provide low-cost, frequent and reliable access to low Earth orbit."
Officials said the study will focus on identifying technologies and assessing their potential use to accelerate the development of commercial reusable launch vehicles that have improved reliability, availability, launch turn-around time, robustness and significantly lower costs than current launch systems.
NASA said the project will officially begin at the Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange, to be held in Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 26-29. NASA said it and Air Force Research Laboratory officials will meet with representatives of the commercial RLV industry to "explore and understand their long-range growth plans and the technology they could use to implement those plans successfully."
