NASA selects Virgin Galactic for Suborbital Flights

"Virgin Galactic has been selected by NASA to provide flight
opportunities for engineers, technologists and scientific
researchers to fly technology payloads into space.

This arrangement marks the first time that NASA has contracted
with a commercial partner to provide flights into space on a
suborbital spacecraft, and represents another important
endorsement of the value of regular commercial space access
for a wide range of science and educational applications."

See:

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/...ht s_999.html