NASA officials signed a memorandum of understanding with Virgin Galactic LLC Feb. 20 to explore potential space technology development cooperation, NASA announced. NASA Ames Research Center and Virgin Galactic LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of Virgin Group, will explore possible joint work on space suits, heat shields for spaceships, hybrid rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles.

The two-year agreement stipulates that neither NASA nor Virgin Galactic will be required to pay any fees or provide funds.

The agreement was negotiated through NASA’s Space Portal, a newly formed organization in the NASA Research Park at Ames which looks for new way for NASA to promote commercial space efforts. "This new type of private-public partnership can benefit the agency while helping to foster a new industry," Dan Coughlin, NASA’s lead for the agreement, said in a statement.