Astronauts4Hire Joins the Commercial Spaceflight Federation as Research & Education Affiliate

Online, February 7, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Astronauts4Hire is pleased to announce that it has officially become a Research and Education Affiliate of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Astronauts4Hire joins research and education affiliates such as Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, George Mason University, and the University of Central Florida that are interested in flying scientists and payload specialists onboard the new generation of commercial suborbital spacecraft.

"We are pleased to welcome the Astronauts4Hire nonprofit as an affiliate of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation," stated John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "The Astronauts4Hire organization is a diverse group of enthusiastic future scientistastronauts, and its members have backgrounds ranging from engineering and aviation to astronomy and physiology. They are training for prospective future spaceflights and have volunteered to raise public awareness of the exciting potential of commercial spaceflight. Hopefully, members of the Astronauts4Hire group will be among the thousands of people who will fly to space in the coming years onboard commercial suborbital spacecraft."

Brian Shiro, a geophysicist and president of Astronauts4Hire, stated, "Astronauts4Hire is very excited to be joining the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and looks forward to productive mutual collaboration through projects like the Commercial Spaceflight Federation's Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) that raise awareness of the potential of commercial human spaceflight and enable the new industry to flourish."

Astronauts4Hire and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation are both proud co-sponsors of the upcoming Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which will be held at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida from February 28 to March 2, 2011.