UP Aerospace

UP Aerospace provides sub-orbital transportation for corporate, military and educational payloads, via their SpaceLoft XL sounding rocket launch vehicles.

The vehicle failed to go higher than 40,000 ft due to a malfunction attributed to faulty fin design and unexpected aerodynamic effects.

[6] They plan to "double the number of customer launches from Spaceport America to six or more in 2010 as demand for the company's services increases.

On April 28, 2007, some of the cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who played Chief Engineer Scott on the 1960s television series Star Trek, and from astronaut Gordon Cooper, were rocketed into suborbital space (along with ashes of about 200 other people) by UP Aerospace from Spaceport America.

[12] By August 2007, UP Aerospace began offering low-cost launches to youth and students through the Space Generation Advisory Council for as low as US$2,000 per experiment.

From 2008, the Space Generation Advisory Council hosted a range of competitions for youth to address specific technical or logistical challenges through the design of their own UP Aerospace TinySat module.

Lockheed Martin stated that they are trying to create a lower-cost-to-orbit cargo service, using a winged vehicle launched atop a land-based rocket.

The SpaceLoft XL suborbital sounding rocket carried four technology experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program to an altitude of approximately 75 miles (120 km).

For the first time for UP Aerospace the payload experiments were separated from the rocket for an independent re-entry and were recovered 30 miles downrange after parachuting down individually.

The SpaceLoft XL suborbital sounding rocket carried three technology demonstration payloads for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.

The SpaceLoft XL suborbital sounding rocket carried technology demonstration payloads for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.

The first successful launch, a second Spaceloft XL, primarily carried cremated human remains, including those of astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan.

[28] "Education opportunity for New Mexico students to design experiments that use the environment of suborbital space to answer scientific and engineering questions".

UP Aerospace vertical launch site at Spaceport America