LAS CRUCES - For the second time this year, longtime Spaceport America tenant UP Aerospace launched a successful suborbital research mission from the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport.
The launch of UP Aerospace's SpaceLoft-20 rocket Friday (Nov. 8) morning signified the success of a payload and research mission the Colorado-based aerospace company completed for Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"Congratulations to both UP Aerospace and Los Alamos," said Scott McLaughlin, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. "We are happy that Spaceport America can enable connections and launches between local entities like these two great organizations."
Los Alamos's Cyclone-1 payload and research mission allowed the organization to conduct crucial flight testing of new components and technologies.
"The primary mission of the Laboratory is ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile," said Stephen Judd, Los Alamos's mission manager. "To do this successfully requires flight testing to determine how things perform in environments similar to those experienced during a missile launch."
An integral part of the development phase, flight testing allows for data gathering about how systems behave in various environments such as, different accelerations, pressures, velocities, and temperatures.
Upon the rocket reaching its apogee, the research payload was released and monitored by Laboratory scientists throughout its descent back to the Earth. During this flight, an onboard telemetry system transmits in-flight information regarding the payload's
performance and its functionality throughout the flight.
UP Aerospace has been successfully conducting sub-orbital launches at Spaceport America since September of 2006.
The Laboratory has taken part in a trio of test flights since 2021 and is in preparation for another four launches which will span from late 2024 through the fall of 2025.
Spaceport America (https://www.spaceportamerica.com) 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, has a rocket friendly environment of 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000-foot by 200-foot runway, vertical launch complexes, and about 340 days of sunshine and low humidity.
Some of the most respected companies in the commercial space industry are tenants at Spaceport America: Virgin Galactic, HAPSMobile/ AeroVironment, Prismatic Ltd. (a subsidiary of BAE Systems), UP Aerospace, and SpinLaunch.
About UP Aerospace
UP Aerospace was created in 1998 by founder Jerry Larson and incorporated in 2004 with headquarters located in Denver, Colorado. UP Aerospace has been successfully conducting sub-orbital space launches from Spaceport America in New Mexico since 2006.
Its launch operations and SpaceLoft sub-orbital launch vehicle were designed and built from the ground up as a highly reliable, low-cost Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) system.
Flight hardware re-usability has been a key program requirement for the SpaceLoft launch program, enabling further advancements in low cost space launch operations.