Richard Branson’s space tourism company has been tasked with putting together a “new private orbital astronaut readiness program” to take people to the International Space Station (ISS). “This is not just for potentially private space travelers, but could also be for researchers or even government researchers,” said George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic CEO. NASA said in a statement that it signed the agreement as part of the agency’s strategy “to facilitate the commercialization of low-Earth orbit by United States entities.” (The Verge)

Talking point: Under the agreement, Virgin Galactic would be in charge of finding companies and organizations that want to send people to the space station, and then arranging transport for them. The company already had 603 reservations as of May for private passengers to fly to space, with the majority of those tickets sold for US$200,000 to US$250,000 each. NASA announced last year that it would allow companies access to the ISS for commercial purposes, such as filming ads or movies, and for more private astronauts to visit. Its agreement with Virgin Galactic comes a month after the successful launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket, which became the first commercially developed vehicle to take NASA astronauts to space.