Crew members carry the rocket’s recovered payload section from the Army helicopter to
Photo: UP Aerospace Inc./Krista Minor
the launch control center two hours after liftoff.
technology] that’s faster and that’s
cheap, so that in the end, we’ll
have a lot more companies flying
commercial spaceflights. NASA
would just be one of the many
paying customers, not the only
customer.”
New Mexico’s Student Launch
Program is unique. Since 2009,
827 students have participated
in the program, sending a total of
76 experiments on five suborbital
flights. “This is the only educational
initiative in the country that gives
students access to a commercial
launch complex on a consistent
basis,”
Hynes
said.
However,
Kubendran explained that students
have other NASA-sponsored opportunities to experiment in conditions
of extremely high altitude and
microgravity. Some projects fly
on helium balloons that float at
altitudes above 20 miles for up to
20 hours. Others fly on a modified
Boeing 727 owned by Zero-G
Corporation, which follows a series
of vertical parabolic arcs, achieving
30 seconds of microgravity at the
top of each arc.
“We have done three to four
flight weeks every year on the
Zero-G platform,” Kubendran said.
“We hope to continue that on
an ongoing basis. That gives an
opportunity for the students to
develop the experiment, build the
experiment, fly the experiment, and
to be in zero gravity with it”
New types of spacecraft being
developed by Virgin Galactic
and XCOR will offer additional
possibilities when they are ready
for operation. NASA already
has contracts with both of those
companies. “Obviously, with UP
Aerospace, you’ve got to send the
experiments alone,” Kubendran
told the crowd as they waited for
the SL-7 payloads to be brought
back to Spaceport America. “But
when Virgin Galactic and XCOR
start flying, maybe there’s an
opportunity for the researchers
in this audience to fly with their
payload into space. That’s coming
in the near future.”
Other opportunities for students
and educators nationally:
• Education programs sponsored
by NASA, www.nasa.gov/
offices/education/programs/
descriptions/All_Alpha.html.
• The Student Spaceflight
Experiments Program,
http://ssep.ncesse.org.
• Student contests sponsored by
the National Space Society,
www.nss.org/contests.
About the Author: Loretta Hall
is the author of Out of this World:
New Mexico’s Contributions to
Space Travel and the website
www.NMSpaceHistory.com.
Photo: Loretta Hall
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