SpaceLoft XL
UP Aerospace
Flight-proven solid-fuel suborbital sounding rocket providing low-cost microgravity and hypersonic test flights from Spaceport America.
Technical specifications
- Payload capacity
- 36 kg (79 lb)
- Altitude
- 120–225 km
- Stages
- 1 (solid-fuel)
- Microgravity duration
- Up to 5 minutes
- First flight
- 25 September 2006
- Launch site
- Spaceport America, New Mexico
- Recovery
- Parachute, on-land recovery via White Sands Missile Range
About
SpaceLoft XL is UP Aerospace’s flagship single-stage, solid-fuel sounding rocket, in operational service for nearly two decades as the company’s primary vehicle for low-cost suborbital access to space. Launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico with payload recovery support from White Sands Missile Range, SpaceLoft XL is capable of lofting payloads of approximately 36 kg (79 lb) to altitudes in the 120–225 km range, providing several minutes of microgravity time for research, technology demonstration, and educational experiments. The vehicle achieved its first launch on 25 September 2006, and notably carried the cremated remains of Star Trek actor James Doohan and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper on a successful 2007 flight — the first successful launch from Spaceport America. SpaceLoft XL has since flown more than twenty missions for customers including NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and university research groups, using on-land parachute recovery to return payloads for post-flight analysis.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
