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[[Franklin R. Chang-Dìaz]], President and CEO of [[Ad Astra Rocket Company]], and NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations [[William H. Gerstenmaier]] signed a Space Act Agreement to test the new Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket ([[VASIMR]]) engine. NASA had originally studied the [[VASIMR]] engine, and Ad Astra was developing the engine for commercial use. The engine would heat plasma to very high temperatures, for maximum fuel efficiency, generating 4 newtons of thrust, with a specific impulse of approximately 6,000 seconds. Congress had designed the Space Act Agreement as a series of “gates,” allowing NASA and Ad Astra to assess the progress of [[VASIMR]]’s development. Ad Astra would develop the engine, which could cost as much as US$150 million, and would place it on the [[ISS]] for performance testing in space. This agreement was the first that NASA had signed for a payload on the [[ISS]]’s exterior. Officials hoped that the [[VASIMR]] project represented an expansion of the role of the [[ISS]] as a national laboratory.

''NASA, “NASA Administrator Hails Agreement with Ad Astra,” news release 08-332, 17 December 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_08-332_VAS[[MIR_engine.html (accessed 22 August 2011); Frank Morring Jr., “NASA Inks Agreement To Test Engine on [[ISS]],” Aviation Week, 17 December 2008.''

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