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NALI LAUNCHQUEST  We don't have much additional information to pass along to you, but I thought I would at least provide you with a current status. I have just gotten off the phone with the most recent update from New Mexico. The launch crew was unable to attempt recovery of the rocket yesterday, as there was no opportunity to complete an air-based (by plane) visual confirmation. The UP Aerospace engineers have received some data from White Sands Missile Range and have begun analysis, but there is nothing definitive to report. The crew will hopefully be attempting recovery today, but the terrain where the rocket came down is extremely rough and it may be tomorrow or the next day before we learn anymore about the payload. There has been some speculation as to the nature of the aerodynamic anomaly, but until that is confirmed by analysis of all the data - which won't take place until the black box is recovered - UP Aerospace will not have a final answer. We all remain confident, especially given some of the initial data that's been seen - that the issues from this first launch will be able to be fairly easily addressed and the total success of future missions will be assured. Good morning. We're all glad to be back home in CT, after a full day of travel from New Mexico. Aside from a delay in Dallas for more than an hour, while they changed the nose tire on the airplane (while we were sitting on it?), the day was mostly uneventful. I decided to upgrade our existing photo sharing site at Flickr which has allowed us to continue to upload our photos there. We put some great photos in last night and this morning, and will be continuing to do so today. We'll also get some movies loaded, and will let you know where you can view those shortly. We'll link to all of these sites directly from the main page on the LaunchQuest site at http://www.launchquest.org I'll be speaking to Tracey Larson, UP Aerospace logistics coordinator, later this morning to get updated information from New Mexico. Hopefully, the rocket recovery was completed yesterday and we'll have some idea of the status of the payloads and even some preliminary flight analysis. I'll post to the blog as soon as I know anything. It's been interesting following the various news reports across the country about Monday's launch. Most news stories have been fairly positive about the event, though some have definitely had a negative tone. You can see and hear a great report from the local TV station in Albequerque at http://www.krqe.com/video/expanded.a View new photos directly at http://www.flickr.com/photos/35111461@N We've returned from our briefing. The official sequence of events from today's launch are as follows: At 5:00 a.m., the launch crew discovered the first problem with the transponder. It was finally determined that the transponder was experiencing RF interference, which was keeping White Sands Missile Range from receiving a signal from the rocket. This was corrected using a teflon barrier, and all systems tested correctly. At 11:30, the Spaceport and UP Aerospace made a "Go" decision, and at noon we began a T-2 countdown. At 2:13 p.m. we were at T-30 seconds, and at T-5 seconds the vehicle was armed. The rocket exited the launch rail perfectly - and it was an incredible sight - and White Sands Missile Range was immediately able to pick up the rocket's signal, which meant that the transponder was functioning perfectly. At 10 seconds into launch, an anomaly in the flight pattern was detected. The rocket returned outside of the Missile Range, but the payload location has been visually confirmed by air, and White Sands has been able to provide UP Aerospace with the location coordinates. Recovery of the payload will begin tomorrow (Tuesday), and until the rocket is returned and the "black box" data, as well as the data collected by White Sands has been analyzed, we will not know for sure exactly what happened during the flight. Everyone was extremely positive tonight, including officials from the State of New Mexico and Spaceport America. "Today," announced the Secretary of Economic Development, "we inaugurated a Spaceport." The UP Aerospace launch crew is optimistic that the difficulties experienced with today's launch may be easily remedied. One thing to remember is that many of our experiments were testing the effects of acceleration and g-forces, and the flight - even if it did not reach full altitude - experienced many of the conditions as anticipated. We expect to receive more details by Wednesday - we will literally be the first to know after the scientists and engineers have done their analysis. In the meanwhile, we'll try to get lots of photos online for you to share, and some video footage once we've done our editing. Bryan was able to conduct a short interview with UP Aerospace after the post-launch briefing; we'll post that on the blog and the LaunchQuest website for you to share as soon as we return to CT. I'm going to be getting some much-needed sleep in anticipation of another early travel day tomorrow. -Sue As you may have already learned through the local or national news, things did not go quite as planned at this afternoon's launch. As Bryan told you, the launch itself was incredibly exciting and unbelievably beautiful. The SpaceLoft XL rose from the launchpad in a cloud of smoke and streaked straight into the sky on a trail of flame. We hope we've got some great photos and videos - we'll find out later tonight when we actually get a chance to upload from our cameras. However, after about 10 seconds the rocket began to spiral slightly, and then continued up out of eyesight. The announcement from launch control came in and informed us that there was in fact a launch "anomaly" that was due to an aeronautics issue. We found out shortly afterward that the rocket had climbed to 40,000 feet before coming back down. Right now, we have no idea as to the condition of the payloads or any further details as to exactly what happened. After tonight's post-launch briefing, we'll let you know more. But remember, scientific entrepreneurship is all about trial and error. UP Aerospace's Logistics Coordinator put it best when she said "If putting rockets into space was easy, then everyone would be doing it." We consider the effort today a success in that the rocket successfully launched; we have every confidence that UP Aerospace engineers will figure out what to do to make their next launch - and all subsequent launches - even more successful. Remember: Discoveries are never made without some measure of failure. We learn from our errors, and use that knowledge to further our progress. We'll post again soon, -Sue Palisano Today was an early day, but had a lot of excitement. We ended up leaving the hotel around 3:00am, to catch a bus for 5:00 am , to get to the launch site for a 7:30 launch. There was a little delay. The launch ended up taking place at about 2:15 pm. You could actually feel the excitement building when the speaker announced that it was 5 mins to launch. And at two mins before, there was a silence that fell over the crowd. When the countdown reached 60 seconds people began to bite their nails and dare not blink. Then we reached the final ten seconds; all eyes were focused on the horizon to a grouping of small white buildings. There was a flash and you could see the rocket lifting off the ground. It climbed and climbed, but during the last few seconds of burn time it seemed to wobble or corkscrew, but when the burn stopped there were loud cheers and a few even broke out into tears. Then we heard the launch! The sound of the rocket taking off reached us just as the burn stopped. That was really awesome. After about 2 mins, there was an announcement that there was an anomaly in the flight pattern. We will learn more about this anomaly tonight during the debriefing. More will be posted after 8:00pm ~Bryan Rickard Update at 11:45am, NM. We've just been informed that all systems are GO, and everything is now working. At 12 noon, we go T-2 hours and are expecting to see a 2:00pm lift-off. We're very confident that the launch will be happening today. In the meantime, the sun is hot, we're drinking lots of water, and we have some great photos of our LaunchQuest team students with some new friends, including a horned-toad they found in the desert. We'll continue to update you - stay tuned for more news. It's 8:30am in Upham, NM. We're standing in the staged VIP viewing area, which is a field two miles downrange of the launch pad. This morning's launch has been delayed from 7:30am due to the failure of a transponder. The transponder is an electronic device that will allow White Sands Missile Range to track the path of the rocket, and allow UP Aerospace to successfully recover the rocket on touchdown. The launch crew has lowered the launcher, removed the nose cone and payload, and is in the process of replacing the bad transponder. According to NM Economic Secretary Rick Homens, who is in charge of the space port and has been providing us with status updates, the UP Aerospace crew is hopeful to be able to launch by around 10:00am. We have a beautiful, sunny, clear and calm day. The mountains and open ranges are breathtaking. With any luck, we'll see the rocket go up in the next hour or so. Stay tuned for further information, and be sure to check later today and tomorrow for more launch event photos. It's been a long day. We left home at 4:00 a.m. this morning for Bradley Airport. Our first flight took us to Dallas/Fort Worth, then we flew to El Paso, Texas. From there we drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico. The landscape is fantastic - we've taken lots of pictures and video and will be posting throughout the day tomorrow. As Bryan told you in his entry, tonight was the UP Aerospace briefing. Our presentation on the NALI LaunchQuest program, including our students who have traveled here for the launch, was met by a standing ovation from the crowd of about 100 people in the Hilton Hotel Ballroom. Lots of people from the press and from the Air Force, Los Alamos, and many, many others came to speak to us after the meeting to find out more about what our students have done and what our plans for the future are. We received our instructions for tomorrow morning, which included the fact that we have to leave our hotels at 3:30 a.m. to get to the launch staging site. The road will be blockaded, so we will have to travel the last 30 minutes by bus to the VIP Viewing Area. One of the things we learned tonight is that we should all listen for 2 sonic booms approximately 7 minutes after launch. This will mean that the rocket has reached space, and the launch is a success! We're going to try and record these "booms" for you with our video equipment. We're all going to try and get some rest now - tomorrow afternoon we'll upload about 20-30 photos and some video footage. Goodnight, -Sue The briefing took place in the Hilton in Las Cruces. Here is the break down of the rocket: Central Connecticut State University- they have a data logger to monitor pressure, temperature, and the G-forces of the launch. The project came from a Mechanical Engineering Project. Brown University- they are sending up a star tracker to make sure that it can withstand the rigors of the launch process CCAT- They are sending up experiment containers from schools all across the nation. NASA Space Grant from Colorado- created a one pound, one inch thick sensor package. They have plans to Train Educators and Students how to make this package so that they may use it on future launches. New Mexico State University- They are sending up a flight computer, magnetometer, earth sensors, Code for sampling ADC and storing data, and discrete sensors for temperature, pressure and 3-axis acceleration. Tonight was really fun. The presentations took just under an hour to finish, and there was time spent afterward to mingle and talk to everyone who was there. Everyone was really excited. ~Bryan Rickard You can share in the launch as we post photos from New Mexico. Pictures can be viewed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35111461@N |
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