now we know, Virgin was going to cooperate with this "grand management scheme"
[link to pm.fwdto1.com]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Virgin Galactic (VG) announced today that they will explore the use of VG's vehicles for climate science and other research relevant to NOAA's mission.

NOAA and Virgin Galactic intend to explore a possible collaboration that ultimately would fly NOAA science instruments onboard the VG carrier vehicle and SpaceShipTwo. The first of these instruments would provide data on atmospheric composition – particularly CO2 and other greenhouse gases – that will increase understanding of important global climate science. Such data will also provide important in situ measurements which will help provide calibration of satellite-based atmospheric measurements.

Both NOAA and VG are interested in increasing the understanding of the basic data and processes underlying climate change. A central component of NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in Earth's environment, and a major focus of the Virgin Group is playing its part in answering the challenge of climate change throughout its global businesses. Work conducted under this agreement during the vehicles' test flight program would be done on a no-exchange of funds basis and in compliance with all appropriate FAA regulations.

"We need data and observations to understand how our climate changes," said Retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "This affords us a new and unique opportunity to gather samples and measurements at much higher altitudes that we can usually achieve."

"To my mind there is no greater or more immediate challenge than that posed by climate change," said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. "It's therefore more than fitting that the very first science to be conducted on board our new vehicles may be specifically directed at increasing our understanding and knowledge of the atmosphere and from there, to better inform our decisions as to the most effective ways of dealing with climate change."