Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built, commercial spaceport, announced the successful launch today of an UP Aerospace SpaceLoft™rocket carrying several scientific and engineering experiments. The launch took place this morning at 8:01 MST from Spaceport America’s Vertical Launch Complex-1 on the East Campus. This launch represents Spaceport America’s 24th overall launch and the fourth from Spaceport America with NASA Flight Opportunities Program payloads.
The SpaceLoft commercial research rocket was launched within the dedicated 2 1/2-hour launch window, and flight data indicate the rocket attained a maximum altitude of approximately 120.7 km/74.98 miles. The parachute recovery system brought the rocket and its payloads safely back. The payloads were recovered intact 49.62 km/30.83 miles downrange on the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range as planned. This is the first mission in which UP Aerospace demonstrated the capability to eject separate payloads that require independent re-entry into the atmosphere. Three separate parachutes provided soft landing of payload components.
“Spaceport America congratulates UP Aerospace on a successful launch and for being the first private commercial-space company to demonstrate independent payload re-entry,” said Spaceport America CEO Christine Anderson. “Spaceport America is also proud to support these important research payloads for NASA and academia.”
“I would like to thank Spaceport America for hosting all ten of the SpaceLoft missions,” explained UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson. “We look forward to offering our new independent re-entry capabilities which we have demonstrated with this mission to other customers in the future.”
The payload flown on the UP Aerospace SL-10 rocket included the following:
Maraia Earth Return Capsule from NASA Johnson Space Center. This experiment tested a reentry capsule being developed to return small satellites and individual payloads from orbit on-demand.
AVA from NASA Ames Research Center. This was a test of a developmental, low-cost avionics package, which will ultimately be used to monitor and control launcher systems designed for small satellites.
Green Propellant experiment from Purdue University. This experiment studied surface tension behavior of a new “green” rocket propellant in low gravity. Results will be used to validate propellant management devices applicable to both geostationary and interplanetary spacecraft.
SOF-2 from New Mexico State University. This experiment tested an autonomous, robotic method to identify unknown or changed inertia properties (mass, center of mass, moments of inertia) of a spacecraft. This will be used to enhance control capability of future on-orbit servicing missions such as satellite refueling, rescue, repair, and orbit debris removal.
About NASA Flight Opportunities Program:
https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/
About UP Aerospace:
UP Aerospace, incorporated in 2004 by its founder Jerry Larson, is a space launch and flight test service provider offering world-class access to space. Specializing in advanced engineering, launch technology development, and state-of-the-art rapid and low-cost launch operations, the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft™ platform has successfully reduced the cost and scheduled time to launch experiments and commercial payloads. UP Aerospace is headquartered in Denver, Colorado with launch facilities at Spaceport America, New Mexico. http://upaerospace.com
About Spaceport America
Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. The FAA-licensed launch complex, situated on 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, boasts 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000-foot spaceway, and 340+ days of sunshine and low humidity. Two of the most respected companies in the commercial space industry are now tenants at Spaceport America; Virgin Galactic and SpaceX. Visit http://spaceportamerica.com/press-center/ and follow us on Twitter: @Spaceport_NM
™ SpaceLoft is a registered trademark of UP Aerospace
