2nd Annual Student Educational and US Air Force Launch (SL-4)

May 4, 2010

Mission Objective
The SpaceLoft-4 (SL-4) rocket was host to the 2nd annual Educational launch for the New Mexico Space Grant.  In addition to students’ experiments, 30 cremated remains of people were on board, paid for by family members seeking a novel tribute to their loved ones. Two secondary payloads were onboard this flight including one from the Department of Defense and one for the US Air Force.

Description
The rocket roared 70 miles above the earth and spent about four minutes in space before re-entering the atmosphere. The payload landed under its new ultra soft recovery system tested at Spaceport America last month on a simulated full size payload.

Recovery was at the Army's White Sands Missile Range, which also provided a helicopter crew for pickup. The payloads were then flown back to Spaceport America where UP Aerospace then delivered the payloads to their customers within 3 hours after the launch in perfect condition.

"The launch of our fourth SpaceLoft rocket was a huge success today... all systems functioned as planned" Jerry Larson of UP Aerospace said. "We had a lot of people working on this. We had Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space office, and Schafer Corporation, all working to make this flight successful." " we are fortunate to have such great business partners".

Above Photo: Less than 3 hours after launch UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson (Left) delivers a US Air Force payload to its contractor Vulcan Wireless President and CEO Kevin Lynaugh (Right).  The Air Force payload functioned perfectly during its 4 minutes of weightlessness in space. (copyright: UP Aerospace Inc 2010)