Virginia Firm to Study Shuttle Tank Project
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WASHINGTON — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has granted a small Virginia company the right to do research and development for using spent space shuttle fuel tanks as a platform for military, civilian and commercial experiments.
The agreement, signed with Global Outpost of Alexandria, is the first for using the 154-foot-long tanks, which now are destroyed in their plunge through the atmosphere. The tanks carry the 528,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that carry the shuttle into orbit.
Under the agreement, NASA will be reimbursed for any work it does for Global Outpost, a firm formed in 1988 in response to President Reagan’s commercial space initiative.
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