UP Aerospace readies student payload launches - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The approaching launch is UP’s thirs from in southern New Mexico, but unlike its previouxs flights, this one will contain mostlyy payloads prepared by New Mexico high school andcolleger students, said UP President Jerry “Almost 100 percent of the payloads are educational experiments, most of them from New Larson said. “We plan to do this as a yearly event, so this will be the firsg annual SpaceLoft missionfor education.
” The Spaceport Authority is payingv for the launch in partnership with the New Mexicop Space Grant Consortium and the X-Prize The partners want to excite students aboutg science and space and provide real-worled experience for future rocket scientists, said Spaceporg Authority Executive Director Steve Landeene. “Education is a key pillad of the spaceport,” Landeene said. “We’re providing hands-o learning for students to actually buildr payloads and analyze data as part oftheitr studies.
We want teacherd to plan it into their Pat Hynes, director of the Spacde Grant Consortium at , called it work-force “We’re educating the people that will work in the spacee industry and at Spaceport America,” Hynes said. “Companie will be coming to New Mexicloand they’ll need people who understand how to builfd a satellite and how to launch and track a so we’re training the work forced now for when those companie arrive. When a student says ‘I built a payloadd that went to suborbi inApril 2009,’ that gives the student a much bettef chance to get a job.
” The payloads paid for by the Space Grant Consortium – includ experiments designed by students at NMSU, Doña Ana Community the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, the , in and five high schools. The experiments will measure thinge like atmospheric radiation and particle detectiomn athigh altitudes, Hynes “This is a completely unique program,” she “No other space facility in the world is doing anything like The Spaceport Authority will pay abouft $180,000 for the launch, including about $140,000 to UP and the rest for serviceas from White Sands Missile Range, Landeen e said.
The X-Prize donated about $140,000, and the rest came from the spaceportg budget. In the future, Landeene expects the newlyh formed Spaceport America Institute to raise fundas from government agencies andprivate foundations. As a partner in the UP charged the New Mexicko institutions below cost forthe rocket, whicu typically costs up to $250,000 to Larson said. But UP won’t lose money because the launch includes payloads fromother institutions, such as a University of Hawai experiment financed by the Operationapl Response Space Office at Kirtland Air Forcr Base. “The Air Force wantd to try outour low-cost, rapid launch Larson said.
“Future contracts depend on our Celestis Inc., a subsidiary of Houston-based , will placwe the remains of 18 people on the Celestis sent the ashes of 200 people on UP’sz last suborbital launch in 2007. Customerds paid from $695 to $2,085 to placre from one to 14 grams of ashes on the said Celestis spokespersonSusan Schonfeld. “Price depend largely on the amountof remains, because payload costs depend on weight,” Schonfeld said. Larson said eight paying customersx requested space to launch various materials onthis “We split the flight up in a cost-sharse arrangement,” Larson said.
“We designed the vehicle with separatd individual compartments to accommodatemultiple customers.”