NASA inks Space Act Agreements to advance Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge

So far, 17 companies have signed Space Act Agreements with NASA to participate in Grand Challenge Developmental Testing (GC-DT) and activities that will assess the readiness of NASA’s test infrastructure.

US space agency NASA said today it has inked Space Act Agreements with 17 aviation companies to advance plans for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Grand Challenge aimed at testing the capabilities and readiness of vehicles and systems that could revolutionize mobility (passenger and cargo air transportation) in and around densely populated metropolitan areas.

UAM innovations could include small package delivery within dense urban areas, personal taxi service by air, air medical services, such as patient ambulance transportation; and cargo delivery to underserviced communities.

The challenge managed by NASA's Advanced Air Mobility project will not only bring together companies involved in emerging air transportation systems but also help ensure public safety by informing requirements for UAM operations and formalizing best practices to enable the development of regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA said in a statement on Wednesday.

With this step, we're continuing to put the pieces together that we hope will soon make real the long-anticipated vision of smaller piloted and unpiloted vehicles providing a variety of services around cities and in rural areas

Robert Pearce, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics.

2020 will witness several developmental testing activities that will lay the groundwork for an initial UAM Grand Challenge in 2022 involving a small set of participants, followed by the full Grand Challenge involving many more participants. So far, 17 companies have signed Space Act Agreements with NASA to participate in Grand Challenge Developmental Testing (GC-DT) and activities that will assess the readiness of NASA's test infrastructure.

Commenting on the pact signing, Starr Ginn, NASA's Grand Challenge lead said, "We consider this work as a risk reduction step toward Grand Challenge. It is designed to allow U.S. developed aircraft and airspace management service providers to essentially try out their systems with real-world operations in simulated environments that we also will be flight testing to gain experience."