Category Archives: Rockets

Education, micro-g R&D, Rockets

EXOS Aerospace to launch student and medical research payloads on suborbital rocket

This Saturday at Spaceport America in New Mexico, EXOS Aerospace will attempt the first launch of the company’s reusable suborbital sounding rocket, which has the title SARGE (Suborbital Autonomous Rocket with GuidancE) . The rocket will be carrying payloads for  student projects and medical research experiments:

Reusable Rocket to Carry Student and Medical Research Payloads into Space

Researching science in space has long been a costly endeavor. A rocket launching from New Mexico’s Spaceport America this Saturday may help change that when an EXOS Aerospace SARGE test flight heads into space carrying student and other research experiments.

Tune in to the launch live stream here at the EXOS YouTube channel. It will go active when the live stream begins:

youtube.com/channel/UCh2dmwg4BVRAznfQgdhTm7w/live

Currently, liftoff is planned for 1:00 ET on Saturday (12:00 CT, 11:00 MT, 10:00 PT). The EXOS website (exosaero.com) has a countdown timer.

“Reusable rocket technology makes it possible to cut the launch waiting period for a payload dramatically, while also reducing costs,” said EXOS Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer John Quinn. “This lowers the barriers for the types of NewSpace education experiments made possible by Enterprise In Space (EIS).”

The EIS student experiments were created at the Grand Center Arts Academy (GCAA) in Saint Louis, Missouri. EIS worked with Andrew Goodin of GCAA and 24 students from his “Building Creative Confidence” class on experiments related to topics such as using the heat of space to melt crayons into space art and determining the effects of the space environment on maple tree seeds that will be grown on Earth when returned from space. To house the experiments, Goodin’s class produced a 3D-printed container that met the criteria of EXOS. In less than two months, they made a 3D-printed cube housing and drop tested it to ensure the object would survive the rocket trip.

Also onboard, the Center for Applied Space Technology (CAST)-sponsored Biological Research in Canister (BRIC) experiment features nine petri dishes containing biological material and is anticipated to have terrestrial and long-duration space flight applications. The BRIC project supports two proof-of-concept projects in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic of Florida Space Medicine program. These projects include an innovative passive flight-crew monitoring system and a cutting-edge organ-on-a-chip experiment.

Enterprise In Space, a nonprofit program of the National Space Society, has led the effort as part of its focus on STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) education and space exploration advocacy. EXOS is hosting the Enterprise In Space and CAST payloads as an in-kind contribution.

“This is the first of many anticipated suborbital research space flights,” said Shawn Case, EIS founder and chairman of the EIS board. “Our goal is to inspire the next generation of future astronauts and space explorers by doing valuable scientific experiments in space. The experiments going up with the SARGE rocket look at some really cutting-edge science, and we’re thrilled to be able to launch the educational payload for Goodin’s class.”

EIS plans to work with EXOS to create an educational K-12 curriculum for the EIS Academy (www.eisacademy.org), as the two partners further develop a long-term relationship.

About Enterprise In Space: Enterprise In Space (EIS) is the world’s first NewSpace education program. EIS provides access to STEAM education to all through the open online EIS Academy. The program’s first Academy-wide project is the design, launch, and retrieval of a 3D-printed spacecraft carrying 100+ active and passive experiments from K-postgrad student teams from all around the world.

About the National Space Society (NSS): NSS is an independent nonprofit educational membership organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space, with over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space.

About EXOS Aerospace Systems and Technologies: EXOS is a leading developer of reusable space launch vehicles and is based in Greenville, Texas. EXOS provides affordable, repeatable, and reliable commercial spaceflight with accelerated turnaround.

About the Grand Center Arts Academy: GCAA Grand Center Arts Academy provides the highest level of academic and artistic education for the most talented students in the St. Louis community.

About the Center for Applied Space Technology: The Center for Applied Space Technology (CAST) is a 501(c)(3) corporation based in Florida with offices at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and Jacksonville, FL. The Center has supported space medicine research in the laboratory and on parabolic, high altitude balloon and suborbital space flight, as well as on board the International Space Station. The EXOS flight will provide the CAST team with another significant opportunity to explore and characterize the behavior of biological systems when in the environment of microgravity.

About Made In Space: Made In Space, Inc. is the world’s most experienced in-space manufacturing company. Established in 2010 and with offices in Florida, California, Alabama and Ohio, Made In Space leverages the unique properties of the space environment to develop manufacturing solutions to commercial, industrial, research and defense challenges.

Additional Media Assets Available:

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Education, Rockets

Videos: New Glenn animation + Global rocket race + Space communicators + SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell

A selection of space related videos:

** New Glenn: Blue Origin’s Big Reusable Rocket – YouTube – A nice animation of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, including the return and landing of the first stage onto a ship platform at sea.

New Glenn is a 7-meter-diameter (23 ft) two-stage orbital launch vehicle with an optional third stage and a reusable first stage. The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 methane/oxygen engines—designed and manufactured by Blue Origin—producing 17,000 kN (3,800,000 lbf) of liftoff thrust. Launches of the New Glenn are planned to be made from Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 36 in 2020

** SpaceX Killer – The Great Rocket Race | MUST WATCH – YouTube – A look at rocket projects around the world that are aiming to lower the cost of getting to space.

In this video we look into the Competitors of SpaceX, some of whom have great plans to take on SpaceX , by launching reusable rockets like Jeff Bezos’s Blue origin or by simple efficient and low cost manufacturing process as implemented by India, whose low cost seems to have baffled even the experts.

We look at different countries from Arianne Group (EU) to China and India, and also different companies like Blue origin , ULA , Virgin Orbit , who may give SpaceX the run for the buck in this new era of Space Race.

** Talking Science Communication with @thespacegal, Emily Calandrelli – YouTube

“Emily Calandrelli is here to talk with me all about what it’s like to be the SpaceGal. A full blown science rockstar with e masters degrees from Harvard in Aeronautics and Astronautics, author of “Ada Lace”, a TV producer and host of “Xploration Station” on Fox and corespondent on “Bill Nye Saves the World.””

** SpaceX’s plan to fly you across the globe in 30 minutes | Gwynne Shotwell – YouTube – An on-stage interview with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell from last May at a TED conference:

What’s up at SpaceX? Engineer Gwynne Shotwell was employee number seven at Elon Musk’s pioneering aerospace company and is now its president. In conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson, she discusses SpaceX’s race to put people into orbit and the organization’s next big project, the BFR (ask her what it stands for). The new giant rocket is designed to take humanity to Mars — but it has another potential use: space travel for earthlings.

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Living in Space, Rockets, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Videos: SpaceX presents the Crew Dragon and the first astronauts to ride it

The astronauts who will fly on the first Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew missions to the International Space Station were introduced by NASA to the public earlier this month (see posting here). On Monday, SpaceX held a press event at the company’s HQ in Hawthorne, California where the astronauts who will fly on the Crew Dragon were presented and the Dragon and other hardware items were shown off as well. Here are some videos about the event:

Here aer a couple of reports on the event

The Everyday Astronaut Tim Dodd attended the event as well: A rare look inside SpaceX Headquarters and Crew Dragon. – Everyday Astronaut.

He examined the SpaceX flight suit up close: Up close and personal with SpaceX’s space suit – Everyday Astronaut

Dodd recently got to try on the flight suit that Boeing astronauts will wear during their missions to the ISS:

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Activism, Rockets, SpaceCasts

Video: TMRO Orbit 11.31 – “The Space Shuttle you never knew about”

The latest episode of TMRO.tv‘s Space weekly live show is now available in the archive: The Space Shuttle you never knew about – Orbit 11.31 – TMRO

We are joined by Chuck Ryan who built the shuttle simulator ‘Resolution’ to talk about his adventures in NASA and beyond.

Program segments:

Launch Minute
Falcon 9 Launches Merah Putih/Telkom 4

Space News:
Star-making fuel
NASA Awards Multiple Research and Development Contracts
Ultrahot Jupiters are more like stars than we thought

Interview with Chuck Ryan

Community Comments

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Rockets, Solar Science, Space Science

Videos: ULA Delta IV rocket launches NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

Early this morning, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket successfully launched NASA’s Parker Solar Probe from Cape Canaveral on a unique mission to study the Sun’s corona up close NASA, ULA Launch Parker Solar Probe on Historic Journey to Touch Sun | NASA

“The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.” – NASA

Few get to see a spacecraft named after themselves launched on a grand rocket. A clip of Dr. Eugene Newman Parker watching the launch last night:

The spacecraft is carrying a chip with the names of 1.1 million public participants etched on it.

See previous postings here and here on the Parker mission.

More resources at the Parker Solar Probe Mission HQ at Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Lab.

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