Celestis will fly as a secondary payload on board the SpaceLoft® XL. The launch vehicle’s primary payload will be a number of student experiments from New Mexico universities, community colleges, and high schools, as well as part of a robot built by students in Texas.

The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) at New Mexico State University is the primary payload sponsor. Quoting from the NMSGC Web site, NMSGC, “developed the program that currently works with one high school, 5 community college, and 2 universities in New Mexico to build electronic experiments. The purpose of the program is to develop New Mexico’s workforce by providing students access to space annually from Spaceport America.”

The New Mexico payloads include:

• An “Inertial Measurement Unit” from New Mexico State University. The device is designed to record the SpaceLoft® XL’s trajectory. If successful, this device could be used in future SpaceLoft® XL flights.
• Miniature electrical connectors from the University of New Mexico. This experiment will test the reliability of electrical connectors to be used in future missions that will be sponsored by the University of New Mexico, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and COSMIAC, which is a congressionally supported space electronics center established at the University of New Mexico.
• RocketSat, a set of New Mexico high school payloads including a pressure sensor, accelerometers, temperature sensor, and Geiger counter.

In addition, Celestis is flying part of an award-winning robot designed and built by students at Lamar High School in Houston, Texas.

“We are pleased to be working with the primary sponsor of the mission, the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, by providing matching funds that assist students to launch their experiments into space,” said Charles Chafer, CEO of Celestis. “We’re also helping science and technology students in our own community by launching part of an award-winning robot students at Houston’s Lamar High School have built. Including the robot part – called an ‘encoder’ – in the spacecraft is our way of further encouraging these outstanding young people to become the pioneers of the final frontier.”

The Pioneer Flight will fly aboard a SpaceLoft® XL launch vehicle, manufactured and flown by UP Aerospace, Inc. of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. This will be Celestis’ third launch aboard a SpaceLoft® XL.

Quoting from UP Aerospace’s Web site, “The SpaceLoft® XL is UP Aerospace’s workhorse rocket — ideal for significant-size payloads and multiple, simultaneous-customer operations. It is a single-stage unguided sub-orbital launch vehicle designed to provide highly reliable, low-cost access to space. The vehicle’s mil-spec, solid rocket motor design is space flightproven, backed by years of intensive ground qualification testing. The system offers numerous advantages including minimal on-pad effort and simplified pre-launch and launch operations.”

The rocket is 20.0 feet (6.1 meters) tall, has a maximum diameter of 10.4 inches (26.4 cm), and a maximum lift-off weight (including payload) of 780 pounds (354 kg) in its standard mission configuration.  It can transport up to 110 pounds (50 kg) of payloads to an altitude of 72 miles (116 km), but can fly to higher altitudes with lower-mass payloads.

The SpaceLoft® XL flies along a sub-orbital trajectory, meaning the spacecraft flies into space and returns to Earth, without orbiting Earth – similar to NASA’s early Mercury manned spaceflights in the 1960s. This “Earth Rise Service” mission will launch symbolic portions of cremated remains (contained in flight capsules and modules) into space and return them to Earth via parachute recovery. Total flight time is approximately 15 minutes. Once recovered the Celestis capsules and modules will be returned to family members and loved ones, providing them with a flown keepsake.

Liftoff occurs from Spaceport America, New Mexico, a launch facility owned by the State of New Mexico, and located about 45 miles (72 km) north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Prior to liftoff, measurements are taken of upper atmospheric winds. These measurements are fed into a computer that calculates the angle and elevation at which the spacecraft’s launch rail should be oriented so as to ensure a successful flight. After reentering the Earth’s atmosphere the spacecraft returns to Earth by parachute, landing at White Sands Missile Range, which is located near Spaceport America. Technicians at White Sands Missile Range track the spacecraft throughout the flight.

Welcome to the Celestis blog, where we’ll keep you informed of the latest news about Celestis memorial spaceflight services.

Over the next week we will post articles about our upcoming Earth Rise Service mission, The Pioneer Flight, which is projected to launch May 4, 2010 from Spaceport America, New Mexico.  19 participants will be on board.  As usual, we have an interesting mix of people, including film artists, engineers, pilots, a teacher, a martial artist … all of whom had an interest in space, astronomy, science fiction or exploration in general.  We’ll mention just a few Pioneer Flight participants here:

Ralph White enjoyed a distinguished professional career as an award-winning cinematographer, video cameraman and editor, with over 30 years of production experience and hundreds of motion picture and television credits to his name. In 1985, he documented the expedition that found the wreck of the RMS Titanic, and in 1987 and 2000, he co-directed the salvage operation and photography during the recovery of over 5,000 artifacts from Titanic‘s debris field. He was the submersible cameraman for the 1991 IMAX feature film Titanica, and in 1995-96, he was the expedition leader and second unit cameraman for James Cameron’s Academy Award winning feature film Titanic. Ralph made 35 dives to the 12,000 foot deep wreck of the Titanic, and qualified as a copilot on the French Nautile and Russian Mir submersibles. He was operations supervisor of the Medusa ROV for James Cameron’s 3D IMAX film Ghosts Of The Abyss and Technologies Coordinator for James Cameron’s live broadcast from the deck of the ship for the Discovery Channel’s Last Mysteries of Titanic. Ralph was also the deep sea imaging and guest wreck expert for the History Channel’s Titanic’s Last Moments.

The world of film is also represented by John ‘Roger’ Simms, a professional photographer with a passion for his craft and knowing when and where to be to get the front page photo.  With a camera in hand, he would explore the world he lived in and soar the skies above to get the perfect, often award-winning, picture.  He was at his best when he looked through the lens of his camera intent on showcasing his subject – everything from space shuttles or a family of Southern bald eagles, to a grandmother holding hands with her grandchild on the beach.

Flying was a passion for James McEachern, who was chief flight test engineer on many first flights on planes built by Consolidated, Convair and General Dynamics, including the first flight of the B36 and B58.  Some of his original flights still hold world records for type of aircraft for speed, duration, altitude, etc.  Mr. McEachern flew with some of aviation’s finest pilots, such as Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager and Howard Hughes. He also had the opportunity to work with Jimmy Stewart and June Allison on the filming of Strategic Air Command.   Many of his contributions to aviation have been well documented over the years in books and on television. He is often seen on the Discovery and History Channels.

We invite you to read the many interesting stories of our flight participants.