Training Courses

In the Draft Guidelines for Commercial Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Operations with Flight Crew issued by the FAA, section 6 paragraph a. calls for "The pilot of an RLV that will operate in the National Airspace System (NAS) should possess an FAA pilot certificate, and should hold ratings to operate one or more aircraft with similar characteristics for as many phases of the mission as practicable." To meet the guideline OCP has divided the suborbital pilot course into three distinctive phases; Piston Trainer, Rocket Trainer and Suborbital Pilot.

Piston Trainer - Students will become proficient at un-powered landings in a craft with similar aerodynamic characteristics to the suborbital spacecraft.

Rocket Trainer - Students will become proficient at controlling a craft that is rocket powered.

Suborbital Pilot - After completing the Rocket Trainer course the student goes on to fly a suborbital spacecraft.

Payload Specialist - OCP will also provide training for payload specialists. The course will cover how to load and operate an experiment during a suborbital flight. Includes two suborbital flights in which the student runs an actual experiment.

All courses are preliminary pending FAA/AST approval