VIASPACE Subsidiary Ionfinity to Receive Additional $786,000 Under U.S. Navy Contract

IRVINE, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSPC) an alternative energy company with subsidiary operations in security technology, announced that its security technology subsidiary, Ionfinity LLC, will receive an additional $786,000 in funding from the U.S. Navy under a previously awarded contract.

The Company received notice that the U.S. Navy exercised an option to provide the funding for an additional eighteen months of development work. In October 2008, Ionfinity was awarded a competitively selected Phase II contract for eighteen months and received an initial amount of $492,000. To date, Ionfinity has been awarded $1,278,000 under this U.S. Navy contract.

Ionfinity Chief Executive Officer James Weiss said, "We believe the new sensor we are building will substantially raise the standard for future chemical detection and analysis and at the same time make the sensor's operation and performance much more convenient and timely."

Weiss added that while Ionfinity's new sensor technology has direct application in the security industry, it is also expected to have commercial applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture and medicine.

Through its subsidiary Ionfinity LLC, VIASPACE is developing a sensitive miniaturized "sniffer" in a joint collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Sionex and Imaginative Technologies. The development project, entitled "Miniature Electronic Sniffer for Navy Vertical Take off Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VTUAVs)" was awarded by the U.S. Navy's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.

The sensor is a compact stand-alone chemical detection device consisting of: 1) a new and powerful detector called a Differential Mobility Spectrometer; 2) a non-radioactive ionization method that does not fragment or multiply-ionize sampled specimens; and 3) a micro-gas chromatograph for confirmation and enhanced detection capability. The device will detect chemicals and materials of interest at parts-per-billion (ppb) levels within 5 seconds. The hand-held sensor is self contained with respect to power and communications.

About VIASPACE Inc.

VIASPACE is a clean energy company providing products and technology for renewable and alternative energy that reduce or eliminate dependence on fossil and high-pollutant energy sources. Through its majority-owned subsidiary VIASPACE Green Energy Inc., the Company grows Giant King Grass as a low carbon fuel for electricity generating power plants and as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuels.  The Company's subsidiary Ionfinity plans to develop and commercialize new sensor technology that can detect very small amounts of hazardous materials such as explosives, chemical/biological weapons, toxic gases and drugs. For more information, please see www.VIASPACE.com or contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or [email protected].

Safe Harbor Statement:  Information in this news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, as well as general economic and business conditions; the ability to acquire and develop specific products and technologies; changes in consumer and business demand for the Company's products; competition from larger companies; changes in demand for alternative and clean energy; risks associated with international transactions; risks related to technological change; and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.  

SOURCE VIASPACE Inc.

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