Virgin Galactic Research Articles

Space radiation measured during first-ever commercial suborbital mission on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Unity on 29 June 2023

The paper presents the variations of space radiation (primary and secondary galactic cosmic rays (GCR) absorbed dose rate in silicon and flux) measured during the first-ever commercial suborbital flight of the Virgin Galactic (VG) SpaceShipTwo Unity on 29 June 2023. A Portable Dosimeter-Spectrometer Liulin-CNR-VG is used. It is developed in the Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (SRTI-BAS) under a scientific contract with National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy. Liulin-CNR-VG size is 63х54 × 23 mm. Its weight is 0.092 kg. During the first part of the SpaceShipTwo flight, up to 14.4 km, the dose rate rises from 0.058 μGy h-1 up to 2.5 μGy h-1. Above the altitude of 30 km, the dose rate falls to 2.2 μGy h-1, while the dose to flux ratio increases to values about 1.0 nGy cm2 particle-1. The latter confirms the outcomes of previous balloon experiments, i.e. the change of the composition of the radiation field of the GCR and secondary radiation source from predominantly light particles as electrons, pions and muons towards heavier particles as protons and neutrons. On the descending part of the flight, one maximum in the flux and dose rate curves is obtained as Regener-Pfotzer maximum (R-PM). The flux calculated by the moving avervage is equal to 1.2 cm-2 s-1 and the dose rate is equal to 2.9 μGy h-1 at an altitude of 13 km. These values are well in line with those expected in conditions of relatively high solar activity, such as during the flight. The dose rates measured by Liulin-CNR-VG are in good agreement with other Liulin data, such as those recorded during balloon flights in 2005 and 2015 and civil aviation flights. The calculated total equivalent dose rate during the VG SpaceShipTwo flight is 7.46 μSv for 1.22 h. This reveals that there is a very small radiation risk for the pilots and astronauts flying at the VG SpaceShipTwo up to 85.1 1 km altitude.

Space taxonomy: Need for a progressive tax regime

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky famously stated that while the Earth serves as the birthplace of humanity, it is not a place where mankind can indefinitely remain. Perhaps during that period, the prospect of exploring the mysteries of outer space appeared to be an unattainable aspiration. However, in the present day, there are no longer any limitations, not even the sky, since human ingenuity has facilitated access to outer space for humanity. This access is not just for the purposes of research and exploration but also for economic endeavours. Until now, the commercial utilisation of outer space has advanced at a very sluggish rate. However, firms including SpaceX, Orion Span, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin have achieved significant advancements in the growth of the space industry. The revenue generated by various space-related endeavours has experienced a significant 73% increase over the last ten years. The global space economy, estimated to be valued at USD one trillion in the coming years, is primarily driven by commercial activities. This presents a formidable challenge to the existing national and international taxation systems. Similar to the open seas, space is also considered res communis omnium, meaning it belongs to the entire community, and presents comparable taxing challenges with potentially uncertain solutions. The three fundamental elements of every taxation regulation, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or the United Nations Model Double Taxation Convention, are the taxpayer's place of residence, the origin of their income, and the methods by which they generate their money. The current tax system does not have the necessary concepts and provisions to adapt to the rapid advancements in commercial space technology. This paper examines the legal issues surrounding commercial activities conducted in space, including the nature and handling of the income generated in various legal systems. It also addresses concerns such as tax avoidance and excessive taxation, emphasising the necessity for a globally coordinated approach to effectively tax commercial activities in space.

From yachts to spacecraft: Legal aspects of space tourism ventures in comparison with the legal regime governing marine tourism

Until recently space travel was considered a privilege of governmental astronauts, with the exception perhaps of a few billionaire space tourists, who had been accommodated on the International Space Station on some rare occasions. Nonetheless, with major space pioneers announcing plans for space tourism activities and after the successful launch in orbit of space tourism vehicles from the Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin companies, academic interest about human spaceflight for purposes of leisure and recreation has ignited. Taking into account that space tourism is in fact an unregulated activity, this paper will firstly examine whether space tourism activities fall under the scope of space law or under the scope of international air law, depending on the planned trajectory of the space tourism vehicle. Furthermore, the authors will attempt to draw conclusions concerning the legal implications of space tourism activities through a comparative analysis with the 1974 Athens Convention on the Carriage of Passengers and the Carriage of their Luggage by Sea. This international convention provides a great example on the regulation of touristic ventures, as it refers to commercial touristic activities realized within a res communis omnium, i.e., the high seas, similarly with touristic activities in space. Moreover, said Convention provides for a specialized regime for touristic activities and is of particular interest, since it has achieved stability and a desirable balance of interests between private tourism operators and passengers. In this connection, the authors will evaluate the provisions of the 1974 Athens Convention in comparison with the space treaties applicable to space tourism activities. Furthermore, suggestions will be made as to whether it would be appropriate and feasible to introduce in the space law realm certain rules of law similar to those of the 1974 Athens Convention, in order to facilitate growth in the space tourism sector, without compromising the safety of human spaceflight for space passengers.

USB Triggering of Video Recording in Sub-orbital Experiments

Abstract Successful sub-orbital flight operations of a novel method for autonomously controlling GoPro cameras in microgravity, without any additional mechanical device, are described. The method employs the use of GoPro Labs software to control the power and recording functions of a camera via its USB port and integrates the camera and control with the Integrated Payload Controller (IPC) of the Blue Origin New Shepard crew capsule or with microprocessor control of cameras in Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity. Control of four GoPro Hero-10 cameras on a single power port on the IPC is achieved. The method operated successfully on the Blue Origin New Shepard NS-24 suborbital flight, recording data in the experiment and demonstrating reliable start- and stop-recording functions during the flight. The authors also operated four GoPro Hero-11 cameras via USB port recording control on Virgin Galactic’s June 8, 2024 flight. Hardware specifications for the experimental setup and the ability to operate after extended periods of inactivity are discussed.

Space ‘Tourism’: a Framework for Ensuring ‘Safe and Orderly Development’ Lessons Learnt from the U.S. and Aviation

In August 2023, following its successful mission, Virgin Galactic announced the intention to provide scheduled services into space. Yet, this paper sets out to present evidence to argue that, from an international (U.N.) perspective, there has been a lack of activity to establish safeguards and to ensure a fit for purpose governance and oversight mechanism is in place for this new and growing sector—space tourism. The research is undertaken by way of a comparison law/policy analysis which factors in key historic events across both aviation and space. The main focus is given to the developments and approach of the U.S. The research finds that there remains a number of areas where clarity and advancement is needed both nationally (U.S.) and internationally; and that, without suitable governance and frameworks being established—safety is compromised, and equitability is not ensured for space tourists. It is advocated that there are clear lessons to be learnt from aviation developments and practices and that one solution would be a governance and oversight system as has been established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Transcriptomic dynamics in the transition from ground to space are revealed by Virgin Galactic human-tended suborbital spaceflight

The Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission conducted the first astronaut-manipulated suborbital spaceflight experiment. The experiment examined the operationalization of Kennedy Space Center Fixation Tubes (KFTs) as a generalizable approach to preserving biology at various phases of suborbital flight. The biology chosen for this experiment was Arabidopsis thaliana, ecotype Col-0, because of the plant history of spaceflight experimentation within KFTs and wealth of comparative data from orbital experiments. KFTs were deployed as a wearable device, a leg pouch attached to the astronaut, which proved to be operationally effective during the course of the flight. Data from the inflight samples indicated that the microgravity period of the flight elicited the strongest transcriptomic responses as measured by the number of genes showing differential expression. Genes related to reactive oxygen species and stress, as well as genes associated with orbital spaceflight, were highly represented among the suborbital gene expression profile. In addition, gene families largely unaffected in orbital spaceflight were diversely regulated in suborbital flight, including stress-responsive transcription factors. The human-tended suborbital experiment demonstrated the operational effectiveness of the KFTs in suborbital flight and suggests that rapid transcriptomic responses are a part of the temporal dynamics at the beginning of physiological adaptation to spaceflight.

Orbital and Suborbital Tourism Challenges—Some Legal Aspects

Space tourism is recreational space travel, whether by government vehicles, such as the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station (ISS), or by vehicles built by private companies. Since the flight of the world’s first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito (28 April 2001), space tourism (orbital) has been slowly growing. Orbital space tourism is very expensive, so a number of private companies have decided to concentrate on building much cheaper suborbital vehicles, designed to take passengers to altitudes of up to 100 km. On 4 October 2004, SpaceShipOne, funded by Virgin Galactic and designed by an American engineer, won the X Prize and, in doing so, ushered in a new era of commercial crewed spaceflight and space tourism. Since then, the design and construction of suborbital spacecraft have become increasingly popular. Such ships, in principle, do not have the ability to cross the imaginary 100 km boundary and enter the Cosmos area. However, space tourists can find themselves weightless for a few minutes. In fact, not only technical but legal difficulties have caused suborbital tourism to develop at a slow pace so far. This article concentrates on some legal challenges regarding space tourism, not going into details about states’ politics and international organizations’ activities.

Human Health during Space Travel: State-of-the-Art Review

The field of human space travel is in the midst of a dramatic revolution. Upcoming missions are looking to push the boundaries of space travel, with plans to travel for longer distances and durations than ever before. Both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and several commercial space companies (e.g., Blue Origin, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic) have already started the process of preparing for long-distance, long-duration space exploration and currently plan to explore inner solar planets (e.g., Mars) by the 2030s. With the emergence of space tourism, space travel has materialized as a potential new, exciting frontier of business, hospitality, medicine, and technology in the coming years. However, current evidence regarding human health in space is very limited, particularly pertaining to short-term and long-term space travel. This review synthesizes developments across the continuum of space health including prior studies and unpublished data from NASA related to each individual organ system, and medical screening prior to space travel. We categorized the extraterrestrial environment into exogenous (e.g., space radiation and microgravity) and endogenous processes (e.g., alteration of humans' natural circadian rhythm and mental health due to confinement, isolation, immobilization, and lack of social interaction) and their various effects on human health. The aim of this review is to explore the potential health challenges associated with space travel and how they may be overcome in order to enable new paradigms for space health, as well as the use of emerging Artificial Intelligence based (AI) technology to propel future space health research.

A Detailed Study of Space X Vs. Blue Origin Vs. Virgin Galactic and the Future of Space Travel

Space travel has had a generally short history. Regardless of its recency, the field has seen quick improvement in recent years. When the area of legislatures, space travel is currently likewise confidential. Starting from the primary business of human space flight occurred in 2001; a few other well-off space vacationers bought their rides into space. Over 150 individuals have pursued sub-orbital space trips with Virgin Galactic. Be that as it may, there are critical hindrances in making space travel a reality for the overall population. The enormous three Space X, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are as yet developing confidential space industry was established entirely by super business visionaries who rose to acclaim (and significant riches) through non-space undertakings. Each has entered the ring with the usual point of reforming space travel, yet in light of one-of-a-kind goals and various dreams regarding how to accomplish their missions. Assuming that one property is shared by the administrations of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, it is the definition of aggressive objectives. Here is a gander at the expressed missions of these three spearheading organizations: 1. SpaceX's central goal to make "humankind multi-planetary" is well in progress and has the red planet Mars soundly in its sights with the reusable Starship rocket program as the essential stage 2. Blue Origin additionally embraces rocket reusability as vital to its primary goal to save the planet by taking advantage of the room's "limitless assets and energy," comparing the new time of room travel and investigation to the Industrial Revolution of the cutting-edge period. 3. Virgin Galactic's main goal to "democratize space" will rely to a great extent upon the outcome of its space travel industry model by which the world's most memorable space line (rather than a carrier) will offer standard "flights" to space from its Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Sixty Years of Manned Spaceflight—Incidents and Accidents Involving Astronauts between Launch and Landing

Introduction: Since Gagarin became the first human to travel into space and complete one orbit around the Earth, on 12 April 1961, the number of manned spaceflights has increased significantly. Spaceflight is still complex and has potential risk for incidents and accidents. The aim of this study was to analyze how safe it is for humans to travel in space. Objectives: This paper, therefore, summarizes incidents and accidents covering the six decades of manned spaceflight (1961–2020). Material and methods: Extensive PubMed, Cochrane, and Google Scholar searches were made with search strings of “incidents”, “accident”, “spaceflight”, and “orbit”, and including all vehicles so far. Search terms were combined by AND or OR in search strings. Of the results obtained, studies which evaluated manned spaceflight were included in the study. Data from the National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA), the Russian Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA), as well as from the Virgin Galactic and the SpaceX databases, were searched to complete data and to identify all the accomplished manned spaceflights, as well as all incidents and accidents that have occurred in the specific period. Search results were compared to findings on Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Astronautica, and other public webpages. Reference lists of included articles/homepages were also included for further potential data. Results: From 1961–2020, our data revealed an increasing number of manned space flights, n = 327. The number of times an astronaut has been sent to space, n = 1294, resulted in an accumulated n = 19,414 days spent in space. The number of days spent in orbit has constantly increased from 1961 until today. The number of incidents (altogether n = 36) and accidents (altogether n = 5) has constantly decreased. The number of astronauts who have died during spaceflight is represented by n = 19. The current statistical fatality rate is 5.8% (deaths per spaceflight) with the highest fatality rate in the 1960s (0.013 deaths/day spent in space), and the lowest rates in the 1990s and the period from 2010 until the present (no deaths). The most dangerous phases of spaceflight are launch, landing and staying in orbit. Altogether, n = 12 incidents (incident rate per spaceflight: 0.04) and one accident (accident rate: 0.003) during launch have been reported, n = 9 incidents (incident rate: 0.03) and two accidents (accident rate: 0.006) have been reported during landing and n = 10 incidents (incident rate: 0.03) have been reported in orbit. Discussion: Manned spaceflight over the last six decades has become significantly safer. Since 2003, no astronaut fatality has been reported. With greater international cooperation and maintaining of the International Space Station (ISS), the number of manned spaceflights and days spent in space has constantly increased, with constantly lower rates of incidents and accidents.

Managing the Promise-Risk Tension: Recrafting Narratives of Innovation After Catastrophic Failure

To gain necessary resources and support to succeed, firms pursuing novel innovations typically craft initial narratives that suggest success in innovative outcomes and achieving commercial activity. Acknowledgements of the possibility of innovation failure contradict that narrative. On one hand, raising the possibility of failure in the initial narrative may lead external stakeholders to withhold the very resources the firm depends on, before a failure materializes. On the other hand, not accounting for that possibility may have a detrimental effect. If a failure was to occur, the firm will likely need to reconcile its initial narrative with the failure, especially when it is catastrophic. Our analysis of a case of catastrophic innovation failure at Virgin Galactic in the private space industry reveals how projective narratives are recrafted after such an event. We find that organizations emphasize and deemphasize three types of statements that compose its narrative: positive projections, ambivalent projections, and averted risk statements. We also identify a tension—inherent to the crafting of projective narratives for innovating firms—between promising how it will function once commercially active, which assumes a successful innovative outcome (to elicit external stakeholder support) and acknowledging the risks of failure in the innovation process (which may deter them). Our findings suggest an opportunity for innovating firms to proactively manage and balance this tension between promise and risk in their external narratives even before the occurrence of catastrophic failures.

EMERGENCE of SPACE INDUSTRY: EFFECT on GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES SKILLS

The Space has always fascinated mankind to know and explore the phenomenon happening in the space. Recently, the governments have opened the sector for private investments including development and deployment of the satellite as well as the Rocket or the Launch Vehicles. The current enterprises as well as the new ones are looking to provide satellite based service and Data. The sector is attracting private investments from firms like SpaceX, Blue Origin,Virgin Galactic, Northrop Grumman etc. and multitude of small start-ups across geographies. The sector is expected to become USD 1.4 trillion by 2030. Skills and the talent are the key ingredients towards the development, growth and the problem solving requirements of the space sector over the period till the sector acquires a degree of maturity. The study intends to explore the skills criticality and influence on the space sector as well as assess the availability and readiness of institutes of higher learning to contribute skills for the sector.

A Round Trip to the Stars?: Considerations for the Regulation of Space Tourism

The prospects for space tourism activities were first mooted in the early 1980s with the launch of the Space Shuttle, which opened a new era of space flight. In the new millennium, space tourism continued its rise from possibility to reality with momentum towards a future dynamic commercial market sector propelled in 2021 with the launch of diverse missions by Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX. These three pioneering companies are continually developing and refining technology to potentially give many tourists their moment in space. The private sector is largely contributing to the development of the relevant space science, funded by private and public investments for space exploration missions. These developments raise complex and novel legal and regulatory issues that are not directly addressed in the five United Nations Space Treaties, even as space tourism are to be considered a lawful use of space. In this article we explore several significant legal issues relevant for space tourism activities including the delimitation of outer space, requirements for authorization, questions of liability, the status of ‘space flight participants’, the duty to rescue tourists and the protection of the space environment. space tourism, space activities, regulation, international space law, national law

How Catastrophic Innovation Failure Affects Organizational and Industry Legitimacy: The 2014 Virgin Galactic Test Flight Crash

We examine how catastrophic innovation failure affects organizational and industry legitimacy in nascent sectors by analyzing the interactions between Virgin Galactic and stakeholders in the space community in the aftermath of the firm’s 2014 test flight crash. Following catastrophic innovation failure, we find that industry participants use their interpretations of the failure to either uphold or challenge the legitimacy of the firm while maintaining the legitimacy of the industry. These dynamics yield two interesting effects. First, we show that, in upholding the legitimacy of the industry, different industry participants rhetorically redraw the boundaries of the industry to selectively include players they consider legitimate and exclude those they view as illegitimate: detracting stakeholders constrain the boundaries of the industry by excluding the firm or excluding the firm and its segment, whereas the firm and supporting stakeholders amplify the boundaries of the industry by including firms in adjacent high-legitimacy sectors. Second, we show that, in assessing organizational legitimacy, the firm and its stakeholders differ in the way they approach distinctiveness between the identities of the industry and the firm. Detracting stakeholders differentiate the firm from the rest of the industry and isolate it, whereas the firm and supporting stakeholders reidentify the firm with the industry, embedding the firm within it. Overall, our findings illuminate the effects that catastrophic innovation failure has over high-order dynamics that affect the evolution of nascent industries.

PERFORMING SCIENCE: SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AS PERFORMATIVE EVENT

A course at the University of Toronto encourages engineering students to analyze how science isconveyed in the popular media through a variety of contexts. An analysis of the language and rhetoric of these communicative acts provides on entry point into how science is framed, while the discipline of performance studies, which identifies and analyzes the mechanisms with which we present our messages and ourselves, provides another useful tool through which to understand the motivations and associated strategies behind scientific communication. This teaching practice paper presents three case studies of scientific press conferences used in the course: NASA’s 2010 astrobiology event, the Higgs Boson announcement in 2012, and Virgin Galactic’s 2014 SpaceShipTwo crash. These three case studies illustrate how the act of communicating science within public spaces should be navigated with an awareness of the intended message and the way that this message is conveyed and perceived. Each case study includes a summary of observations on the event (generated and shared through class discussions), and prompts that will enable theeffective instruction of these and other case studies.

Space Tourism: An Initiative Pushing Limits

Since the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, in 1957, the number of participants in space activities has been growing rapidly. Although space tourism is in its infancy, it is estimated that the number of space tourists will increase significantly in the coming years. Space travel has inspired humanity in so many ways that humans are entering a new era where space will be accessible to the general public. Space giants such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Orion Span and others are making new attempts to open a new page in the field of space activities by introducing the concept of space tourism to the public. In this article, a review is made on the determination of the goals of space tourism, the history of human space travel and thus the initiatives developed by different companies to make commercial space travel possible. In this article, the definition of Space tourism has been expanded into three subcategories: Sub-orbital space tourism, Orbital space tourism and Beyond Earth orbit Tourism, where companies such as SpaceX and Space Adventures Ltd push their limits.

Legal conundrums of space tourism

Private commercial space tourism carrying passengers to outer space is no longer a distant or far-fetched fantasy, rather it is at verge of becoming an affordable reality with exponential development in space technology including development of Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), increasing involvement of private companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin etc. into research and funding of space tourism explorations and applications. It is also receiving huge attention from the public. These developments reflect the infinite possibilities and inevitability of space tourism in near future. However, space tourism may also pose many critical legal issues which must be addressed to ensure the consistent and sustainable development of space tourism, and to secure the rights of all stakeholders involved including operators, passengers, launching State etc. The research paper would highlight the crucial legal issues associated with the space tourism. The paper would critically analyze the efficiency of the present international space treaties in dealing with these issues. At the end, the paper would also attempt to provide few suggestions and solutions to these legal conundrums relating to space tourism.

Natural Sustainability Ethics for Resolving Current Outer Space Challenges

Currently, NASA and several outer space industry multi-billionaire entrepreneurs (e.g. Elon Musk (Space X), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic)), are actively engaged in outer-space research that reports innovative advances such as, outer space: mining, tourism, medicine labs, terraforming Mars and the Moon, and altering celestial bodies and terrestrial humans to enhance extra-terrestrial survivability. All these advances unearth serious ethical concerns of human identity and cosmic sustainability that we address here. Further, the current understanding of sustainability development (SD) is highly anthropocentric (i.e., the earth is meant solely for man’s use), and limited in scope as a terrestrial, temporal, economic and pro-human project. We expand SD to include trans-terrestrial, trans-temporal, trans-economic, and trans-human developments. We view this complex problem by distinguishing anthropocentric (nature is for man) versus non-anthropocentric (man is for nature) modern views of natural sustainability; Each view can be made to include either natural outcomes / processes of nature, or industrial uses and outcomes of nature to provide a four-fold framework of Natural Sustainability within which we explore ethical implications of outer space advances (OSA). We discuss managerial implications and limitations and suggest directions for future research.

How "Rad" Is a Trip to Space? A Brief Discussion of Radiation Exposure in Suborbital Space Tourism.

On Saturday, May 30, 2020, the way we think about space travel permanently changed. Commercial space travel is now a reality. With the first ever commercial crew space launch by SpaceX’s (Hawthorne, California) Crew Dragon, private enterprise now has the ability to take humanity beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Although sending astronauts to the International Space Station from these companies is one goal (such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s [Chicago Illinois] Starliner), space tourism is another chief focus (such as Blue Origin [Kent, Washington] and Virgin Galactic [Las Cruces]).

Shared Metabolic Remodeling Processes Characterize the Transcriptome of Arabidopsis thaliana within Various Suborbital Flight Environments

Abstract The increasing availability of flights on suborbital rockets creates new avenues for the study of spaceflight effects on biological systems, particularly of the transitions between hypergravity and microgravity. This paper presents an initial comparison of the responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to suborbital and atmospheric parabolic flights as an important step toward characterizing these emerging suborbital platforms and their effects on biology. Transcriptomic profiling of the response of the Arabidopsis ecotype Wassilewskija (WS) to the aggregate suborbital spaceflight experiences in Blue Origin New Shepard and Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo revealed that the transcriptomic load induced by flight differed between the two flights, yet was biologically related to traditional parabolic flight responses. The sku5 skewing mutant and 14-3-3κ:GFP regulatory protein overexpression lines, flown in the Blue Origin and parabolic flights, respectively, each showed altered intra-platform responses compared to WS. An additional parabolic flight using the F-104 Starfighter showed that the response of 14-3-3κ:GFP to flight was modulated in a similar manner to the WS line. Despite the differing genotypes, experimental workflows, flight profiles, and platforms, differential gene expression linked to remodeling of central metabolic processes was commonly observed in the flight responses. However, the timing and directionality of differentially expressed genes involved in the conserved processes differed among the platforms. The processes included carbon and nitrogen metabolism, branched-chain amino acid degradation, and hypoxic responses. The data presented herein highlight the potential for various suborbital platforms to contribute insights into biological responses to spaceflight, and further suggest that in-flight fixation during suborbital experiments will enhance insights into responses during each phase of flight.