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Researcher in a parabolic flight conducting research.
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Sara Jennings

Flight Opportunities Resources

Find a wealth of information about flight testing open to researchers from industry, academia, non-profit research institutes, and government organizations.

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Community of Practice Webinars
Lessons Learned Library
Preparation Tool
Podcasts
Newsletters
Reports and Fact Sheets
Solicitation Archives

Community of Practice Webinars

Designed to distill and share the most important lessons learned by suborbital researchers, these webinars are chance to hear from subject matter experts on best practices for preparing for suborbital flight tests.

View webinar topics about Community of Practice Webinars
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Flight Opportunities offers a monthly Community of Practice webinar designed to distill and share the most important lessons learned by suborbital researchers.
NASA

Lessons Learned Library

The Lessons Learned Library curates suggestions from program participants to help researchers be more successful in their flight testing and as they advance their technologies through flight tests.

Browse the library for top tips and guidance about Lessons Learned Library
Flight integration: Aerostar’s Eric Ramsey and Kelly Banghart work with Orion Labs’ Kolbron Schoenberger and Sara Jennings to integrate the Quantum Earth Observation payload onto the high-altitude balloon’s gondola prior to launch.
Flight integration: Aerostar’s Eric Ramsey and Kelly Banghart work with Orion Labs’ Kolbron Schoenberger and Sara Jennings to integrate the Quantum Earth Observation payload onto the high-altitude balloon’s gondola prior to launch.
Orion Labs / Margarita Reyes

Preparation Tool: Exploration of Relevant Test Environments

Consider these key elements/questions to prepare for conversations with the Flight Opportunities team or other NASA personnel. Remember: You can reach out to us anytime! Get in touch via nasa-flightopportunities@mail.nasa.gov

Download the tool about Preparation Tool: Exploration of Relevant Test Environments
Researcher works on technology in box with top removed, revealing wires and other components.
The third TechLeap Prize challenges applicants to make it easier to integrate diverse technology payloads onto various commercial suborbital vehicles, orbital flight platforms, and planetary landers. Pictured here is Arizona State University’s CubeSounder payload integration at the World View facility for an October 2021 high-altitude balloon flight supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.
Arizona State University

Podcasts

Flight Opportunities Overview

Episode 111 of Small Steps, Giant Leaps, posted June 28, 2023

NASA Flight Opportunities Program Manager Danielle McCulloch discusses rapid demonstration of technologies and capabilities for NASA missions and commercial spaceflight.

Listen to the podcast
Ground crew inflate a high-altitude balloon at dawn.
Near Space Corporation’s high-altitude balloon moments before launch for a NASA Flight Opportunities-supported flight test of SpaceWorks Enterprises’ RED-4U capsule in Madras, Oregon, on Oct. 19, 2021.
SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc.

Newsletters

Our newsletter delivers interesting and relevant program news and updates to your inbox. View our latest edition, past issues, and subscribe.

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Feb. 2023 Flight Opportunities newsletter; sections include news, community of practice, opportunities, resources, and events
The Flight Opportunities newsletter delivers interesting and relevant program news to your inbox.
NASA

Reports and Fact Sheets

Check out Flight Opportunities yearly accomplishments reports, program fact sheets, and other researcher and flight provider resources.

Read to learn more about the program about Reports and Fact Sheets
front cover of Flight Opportunities accomplishments report for 2022, showing a high-altitude balloon on the tarmac
World View

Solicitations Archives

Information about past Flight Opportunities announcements related to flight and payload integration services (i.e., flight providers).

Read previous solicitations about Solicitations Archives
Arizona State University CubeSounder team members Kyle Massingill (left) and Michael Baricuatro with their weather sensor payload integrated onto the World View balloon hardware.
Arizona State University CubeSounder team members Kyle Massingill (left) and Michael Baricuatro with their weather sensor payload integrated onto the World View balloon hardware.
Arizona State University

Learn More and Get Involved

World View’s Stratollite high-altitude balloon is inflated on the launch pad.

Access Flight Tests

Flight Opportunities offers several avenues for accessing flights on commercial vehicles in order to test and demonstrate promising space-based technologies.

Heat shield and Earth from space

Commercial Flight Providers

When non-U.S. government researchers compete for funding through the Flight Opportunities program's TechFlights solicitation, they can propose to use any viable U.S.-based commercial provider. For U.S. government research, NASA has IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) contracts with several flight services vendors.

Carthage students observing the gauging of unsettled liquids.

Contact Us

You are welcome and encouraged to contact us to learn more about NASA's Flight Opportunities program. (nasa-flightopportunities@mail.nasa.gov)

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STMD Solicitations and Opportunities

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