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 Technology News | September 2006 
Rocket Launch in New Mexico Ushers in Cheap Space Flight
 Tim Gaynor - Reuters
| | SpaceLoft XL, a rocket packed with cargo on the Spaceport launch pad, is pictured in the desert near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico September 24, 2006. The rocket is set to blast off into space ushering in what its backers say is a new era of cheap public access to the stars. (Reuters/Robert Galbraith) |
A rocket packed with cargo is set to blast off into space from a desert launch range in New Mexico, ushering in what its backers say is a new era of cheap public access to the stars.
UP Aerospace plans to launch SpaceLoft XL rocket into space early on Monday from Spaceport America, a remote desert launch site a few miles from the town of Truth or Consequences in New Mexico.
The telephone pole-sized rocket will hurl around 50 items of payload including a Ziploc bag of Cheerios, some cremated remains and several high school science projects, into a brief suborbital flight 70 miles above the earth.
The rocket is not the first privately funded bid to reach for the stars. Two years ago, SpaceShipOne brushed the edge of space with a man on board, scooping up a $10 million prize in the process for its backers.
But Connecticut-based UP Aerospace says the brief 13-minute flight, scheduled for soon after dawn, will inaugurate a new era that puts space within reach of large numbers of paying customers.
Chief executive Eric Knight said clients can buy payload space starting at a few hundred dollars for the small items weighing a few grams, rising to "many tens of thousands of dollars" for larger pieces of cargo.
"It's the first time the public has had direct access to space in this way," Knight told Reuters by telephone as he conducted a run through at the launch site.
"It is both low cost, and can be repeated on a regular basis," he added.
The firm has nine flights booked over the next 12 months, hurtling payloads of up to 110 pounds (50 kg) up to the edge of space on a solid-fuel rocket that reaches speeds of 3,500 mph -- five times the speed of sound.
The items on board range from serious-minded high school and university science experiments to measure data such as gamma radiation, to the sentimental.
The ashes of actor James Doohan, who soared to fame in the 1960s for his portrayal of the burly flight engineer "Scotty" on the popular television series "Star Trek" are scheduled to fly in one rocket next month. Doohan died last year.
The rocket is to return from space in two parachuted sections landing at nearby White Sands Missile Range.
Should all go to plan on Monday, the flight will also inaugurate Spaceport America, the world's first commercial spaceport which is being developed at a cost of $225 million with backing from the New Mexico government.
"Monday's flight is a very important first step toward developing Spaceport America," said Charles Wollmann, a spokesman for the government of New Mexico's economic development department.
British tycoon Richard Branson said last year he would use the site, which at present consists of a few temporary buildings, as a base for his space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, which plans to blast tourists into space by the end of the decade.
Wollmann said data from the flight would go toward an environmental impact study authorities need to conduct before getting Federal Aviation Administration approval to operate.
"Obviously were all very excited about it right now, but also just a little bit nervous," he added. |
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