NewSpace Journal » Spaceports

Armadillo Aerospace flies again from Spaceport America, but not without problems

Jeff Foust — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:15:58 +0000

In early December, Armadillo Aerospace successfully launched its STIG-A suborbital rocket from Spaceport America, flying to an altitude of nearly 42 kilometers before successfully returning to Earth by parachute. Shortly after that December 4 flight they released a video of the flight, shown below:

On Saturday they were back at the Spaceport for another flight of the rocket. According to a press release issued by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) late Saturday, that flight was at least partially successful. The rocket lifted off as planned and again flew to nearly 42 kilometers, based on preliminary data. However, the release notes, the rocket’s “recovery system did not function properly after reaching its desired altitude however, the rocket was successfully retrieved after a hard landing within the predicted Spaceport America mission recover zone.” No other details about the launch, which was not publicized in advance at the request of Armadillo, have been released yet. Since the company has been open in the past about talking about tests that didn’t go as planned, though, we should hear more from them soon.

Since the NMSA press release is not up yet on the Spaceport America web site, I’ve included the text of the release below:

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 28, 2012

Armadillo Aerospace launches their third “STIG-A” rocket from Spaceport America

Upham, NM – New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a launch of a “STIG-A” rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America’s vertical launch complex on Saturday, January 28, 2012. The research and development test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies.

Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted off at approximately 11:15 a.m. (MDT), which was within the dedicated, five-hour launch window, and preliminary data indicates the rocket reached its projected altitude of over 137,000 feet.

The STIG-A’s recovery system did not function properly after reaching its desired altitude however, the rocket was successfully retrieved after a hard landing within the predicted Spaceport America mission recover zone.

Armadillo Aerospace plans to release additional information on today’s launch in the coming days after they have time to analyze their launch data further.

“This was the third test of the Armadillo “STIG A” reusable sub-orbital rocket technology to launch at Spaceport America. The last successful “STIG-A” was launched at the spaceport on December 4, 2011.

Today’s launch was the 14th launch from the Spaceport America vertical launch complex since 2006 and marks the 4th Armadillo Aerospace launch from the spaceport. Armadillo Aerospace has additional plans to launch from Spaceport America this year.

About Armadillo Aerospace
Founded in 2000, Armadillo Aerospace has an unequaled experience base with over 200 flight tests spread over a dozen different vehicles. The company has done work for NASA and the United States Air Force, and flown vehicles at every X-Prize Cup and Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge event, including those held in New Mexico from 2006 to 2008.
For more information, please visit www.armadilloaerospace.com.

About Spaceport America
Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. Phase One of the construction for the spaceport is expected to be complete in early 2012. Phase Two of the construction and pre-operations activities will follow, including the development of a world-class Visitor Experience for students, tourists and space launch customers. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and UP Aerospace, as well as established aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and MOOG-FTS to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on the promise of economic development to the people of New Mexico.
For more information, please visit: www.spaceportamerica.com

WK2/SS2 flyover at Spaceport America

Jeff Foust — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:51:51 +0000

Below is a brief video I shot of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo flying over the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space” terminal building at Spaceport America on Monday. You’ll see it coming in from the right in the distance, they going over the terminal building and almost straight overhead.

Virgin dedicates its Spaceport America terminal

Jeff Foust — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:18:16 +0000

Sir Richard Branson, dangling from the top of Spaceport America's new terminal building, dedicates the building with a bottle of champagne. (credit: J. Foust)

It was the biggest line of the day—and Sir Richard Branson flubbed it.

Branson was dangling from the balcony Spaceport America’s new terminal building, halfway down the building’s glass wall. He and his son and daughter had joined a dance company, Project Bandaloop, for their performance on the building’s wall. After the dancers and Branson’s children rappelled down to the ground, Branson remained in place, and then had an oversized champagne bottle lowered to him so he could formally dedicate, and name, the building. “And, the name is, whoa!” he said as he uncorked the bottle, “Virgin Galactic Galactic.” And then, after a six-second pause, “Gateway to Space!”

While there was laughter and cheers from the several hundred people in attendance (“more than 800″, according to Virgin), some were left scratching their heads. “What did he say the name was?” one person in the media section asked. “Something about a gateway to space, I think,” said another. The building’s name, in fact, is now officially the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.”

That, though, was a minor glitch in an event designed primarily to show off the spaceport and demonstrate Virgin’s continued commitment to flying SpaceShipTwo from the spaceport in the near future. The new name for the terminal building was one of the few new developments from the event. Virgin did announce some new research customers, including the Challenger Center (whose founder, June Scobee Rodgers, was in attendance). Virgin also announced its first hire for a new group of commercial pilots who will fly WK2 and SS2: Keith Colmer, an Air Force pilot who had previously applied to NASA’s astronaut corps but just missed the cut.

WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo take off from Spaceport America's runway on a brief captive carry flight over the spaceport. (credit: J. Foust)

At a “press conference” during the event (which, despite the name, did not allow any questions from the media), Virgin Galactic officials played up the progress they’ve made in the last year and sought to set themselves apart from the competition. “There is no other company that is as close to flying people to space as Galactic,” said Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides. “There is no one else test flying vehicles that can take you and me into space. And there is no one whose vehicles are based on a design that has already been safely to space to people,” a reference to SS2′s precursor, SpaceShipOne.

WK2 and SS2 soar over Spaceport America's new terminal building. (credit: J. Foust)

New Mexico officials at the event, including Governor Susana Martinez and Congressman Steve Pearce, focused on the economic benefits of the spaceport, including both the jobs created during the spaceport’s construction and those that will be created when the spaceport begins operations. Martinez in particular saw the spaceport as both a way to inspire the state’s youth to study science and engineering, as well as a source of high-tech jobs. “As a young child, what could be more exciting than space travel?” she asked. “We want these new jobs to be created right here so that young New Mexicans don’t have to leave the state to find fulfilling work.”

Martinez, who past comments suggested she was at least somewhat skeptical about the $200-million investment in the spaceport, sounded a little excited herself about the spaceport. “I look forward to strengthening the partnership between the state and Virgin Galactic,” she said. Turning to Branson, she added, “And Richard, today I may have to add it to my bucket list.”

Virgin didn’t offer any new clues yesterday on when it will begin flights from Spaceport America. “Our contractors are working hard now to get the system ready for the first powered flights next year,” Whitesides said, a timeline similar to what he said early this month. He did add that another full-scale ground test of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor is planned “very soon”.

Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space, the new terminal building at Spaceport America. (credit: J. Foust)

The fact that Virgin is still some time from beginning flights at Spaceport America is perhaps a relief to New Mexico, since the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space”, while formally dedicated yesterday, isn’t quite done. Walk up to that distinctive glass wall—which, in the bright sunlight, acts like a mirror—and peer inside, and you see that the interior rooms that will host Virgin Galactic’s operations, astronaut lounge, and other facilities, are still unfurnished, with the walls and floors completely bare. In one case, a door leading into the building was still lacking a handle. However, the building can already serve one its primary purposes: serving as a hangar for WK2 and SS2, which is where they vehicles were housed Sunday when spaceport executive director Christine Anderson saw them for the first time. “It was so awesome to see that,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘Wow, it fits in the hangar. Super!’”

Virgin appeared very pleased with the building and its unique design, as well as its environmentally-friendly characteristics that won it a LEED Gold rating. “Simply put,” Branson said, “it is a 21st century building for a 21st century business.”

Who’s the mystery Texas spaceport customer?

Jeff Foust — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:53:30 +0000

A decade ago the Texas spaceport scene was relatively active. No fewer than three spaceports had been proposed by various local entities to attract RLVs and other commercial launch vehicles. One was the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport, located in Brazoria County, south of Houston; the second was the West Texas Spaceport, near Fort Stockton; and the third was the Willacy County Spaceport, located on the Gulf coast north of Brownsville. (A summary of the status of those spaceports at the time can be found in the 2002 edition of the FAA’s “Commercial Space Transportation Developments and Concepts” report.) However, as the RLV boom went bust, these spaceport plans either went dormant or, in the case of the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport, were cancelled.

Now, through, one of those proposed spaceports may have found new life. A recent article in the McAllen (Tx.) Monitor (which is actually a reprint of one last week in the Valley Morning Star in the Rio Grande Valley) reports that Willacy County officials have found a new tenant for their proposed spaceport. According to the county judge John F. Gonzales Jr., an unnamed aerospace company is planning to lease 50 acres spread across two sites; it would invest up to $50 million for its facilities and hire 100 to 200 people. At least one site would be on the coast, apparently to be used for launches over the Gulf into orbit.

Judge Gonzales, though, declined to disclose the name of the interested company, saying that he was bound by a confidentiality agreement. He did say that the company did test its rockets in December and it “recovered a reusable container similar to 1960s-type space capsules”, according to the article. “They’re the first private company to have successfully launched a low-altitude space flight and successfully recovered it,” Gonzales said. All those comments make the company in question sound like SpaceX: it launched a Falcon 9 in December from Cape Canaveral, placing the Dragon capsule in orbit. That capsule returned to Earth later the same day, making SpaceX the first non-government entity to recover a spacecraft from orbit. However, it’s not clear why SpaceX would have any interest in the Texas site, given its investment in developing its Cape Canaveral site.

Some have suggested that the company in question could be Blue Origin, which already has a test site in west Texas, north of the town of Van Horn. As RLV and Space Transport News pointed out earlier this year, Blue Origin has a patent for a “Sea Landing of Space Launch Vehicles and Associated Systems and Methods”, which covered the powered landing of a booster stage on a barge or other ship in the ocean after launch from a coastal launch site. However, what we know of Blue Origin’s activities don’t seem to match what Gonzales said in the article, but then, there’s a lot about Blue Origin we don’t know about.

Whither OSIDA?

Jeff Foust — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:04:55 +0000

On Monday, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin signed into law a bill establishing tax credits on salaries of engineers hired by aerospace companies in the state. The legislation is designed to encourage aerospace companies in the state to hire employees (especially those educated in the state) by creating or moving jobs there.

Buried near the end of the article, though, is some news about the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority, the state agency that runs the Oklahoma Spaceport, a former Air Force base in Burns Flat. Fallin is seeking to effectively eliminate OSIDA as an independent agency by cutting its roughly half-million-dollar budget and folding it into another state agency, such as the Department of Commerce or the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission. “I’m actually working with our legislators and Department of Commerce on further continuing to market that facility,” she told the AP, “but yet also trying to figure out how we can have shared resources as it relates to the aerospace industry and especially (the Space Industry Development Authority).”

The spaceport was to be the home base for Rocketplane and its XP suborbital vehicle, but the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation last year, effectively leaving the spaceport without a customer. (Armadillo Aerospace has used the site for some low-altitude test flights in the past, but is flying their higher altitude space missions from Spaceport America in New Mexico.) Ironically, the tax credits Rocketplane received for moving to Oklahoma several years ago (what the company often called “winning the O Prize”) became one of the reasons legislators cited when they created a moratorium on tax credits last year that was partially lifted by the new law.

Branson appealed to keep Homans’ job

Jeff Foust — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:11:46 +0000

The turmoil surrounding the management of Spaceport America in New Mexico has been relatively quiet the last couple of weeks, after the resignation of executive director Rick Homans at the insistence of the new governor, followed by the dismissal of the spaceport’s board of directors early this month. That situation is still in flux, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports this weekend, based on an interview with new Governor Susana Martinez. She tells the paper that there will be a “sense of urgency” (in the newspaper’s words) in filling the board and executive director positions, which remain vacant.

One revelation in the article is that Sir Richard Branson personally appealed to Gov. Martinez in a phone call to keep Homans on as executive director. Martinez, though, said she went ahead with plans to ask Homans to leave because she needed to better understand the current situation with the spaceport, including its contract with Virgin Galactic, and was finding it difficult to get those details. “What we want to do is get a hold of the contract (with Virgin Galactic) and make sure we know what the long-term commitment is financially,” she told the Sun-News. “They have not been very willing to share the very hard data of what is the state’s commitment long-term.”

More turmoil for Spaceport America

Jeff Foust — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:59:12 +0000

The new year has not been a good one so far for Spaceport America, the commercial spaceport under construction in southern New Mexico. Early this month executive director Rick Homans resigned, apparently at the insistence of the administration of new governor Susana Martinez, who took office on New Year’s Day. On Thursday the governor announced the formation of a six-person “transition team” to examine the status of the spaceport and its finances. And late Friday Gov. Martinez dismissed the spaceport’s board, saying the spaceport needed “more robust private investment and new leadership to make necessary adjustments”, according to a statement obtained by the Las Cruces Sun-News.

An article in Sunday’ Albuquerque Journal suggests her concerns about management of the spaceport have some legitimacy. The article notes that the work on the spaceport was divvied up into 14 “bid packages” without a single prime contractor, which made it hard to manage the project; that may have led to the resignation last year of then-executive director Steve Landeene, according to the article. (Previous reports had suggested a conflict of interest over a land deal near the spaceport might have triggered the resignation.)

The article also raises questions about whether the spaceport will need to spend $10-20 million in the near future on a second runway at the spaceport to allow flight operations if there are crosswinds on the current runway. Homans said that there had been “some” research on the sensitive of SpaceShipTwo to crosswinds, but that most likely the problem would be addressed by flying in the morning when winds are at a minimum.

One issue with the article is that it suggests that delays in building the spaceport are the main reason flight operations haven’t begun there. “In early 2007, plans called for launches of small Virgin Galactic craft from the site to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere by the end of 2009, news report show,” the article states. However, even if the spaceport had been completed by 2009 or 2010, it still wouldn’t be hosting regular commercial spaceflights as development of SpaceShipTwo has also been delayed. (The spaceport actually has hosted some launches of sounding rockets by UP Aerospace, but these don’t require the expensive infrastructure being built for Virgin Galactic.) So the spaceport may indeed be running behind schedule, but it’s not the only thing taking longer than planned.

Homans to resign at Spaceport America director

Jeff Foust — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:53:43 +0000

The uncertainty about the future of Rick Homans as executive director of Spaceport America, as discussed here earlier this week, appears to be over. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports Wednesday that Homans has tendered his resignation, effective Friday. Homans, speaking at an emergency meeting of the spaceport’s board, said that he had been informed last week by Susana Martinez, who became governor of New Mexico on Saturday, that he had to either resign or be fired. Homans had served in the administration of the previous governor, Bill Richardson, a Democrat; Martinez is a Republican. “I understand politics, and I also understand how critical it is for her to have absolute trust and confidence in the executive leadership of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority,” Homans said, according to the report.

It’s not clear what the board’s plans are for replacing Homans, on an interim or permanent basis. It’s also not clear what the current board’s own future is: while only the spaceport’s board has the power to hire or fire the executive director, the board itself could be replaced by the new governor. The uncertainty comes at a time when the spaceport is seeking to expand the roster of companies doing business there, a move endorsed in a recent Sun-News editorial, but questions about both the spaceport’s management and the commitment to it by the state government could cause some companies to think twice, at least for now.

Update: some more information from the Albuquerque Journal and the Las Cruces Sun-News Thursday morning:

According to the Journal, at least five of the seven spaceport board members wanted Homans to stay on, at least until construction of the spaceport is completed later this year.
Board members, who told the Sun-News they were uncertain whether they would be kept by the new governor, said they had not been given instruction on how to hire a new executive director. However, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Economic Development told the Journal that the position would be advertised and a search committee created.
The Journal also reported that the governor has a “Spaceport Review Team” that is examining the current status of the spaceport, including its contract with anchor tenant Virgin Galactic; that team has received input from former astronauts like Harrison Schmitt and Sid Gutierrez. “The governor believes astronauts have more insight into space travel than Bill Richardson’s deputy campaign manager,” said a spokesman for the governor, referring to Homans. (How much insight these former astronauts have on commercial space travel, though, may be very different.)
Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides told the Journal that the company is looking “forward to working with the Martinez administration to continue to advance New Mexico’s leadership in commercial space,” but had no other comment.

New Mexico uncertainty

Jeff Foust — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:24:30 +0000

By and large things are going well at Spaceport America: other than a delay with one of the spaceport buildings, construction of the commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert is proceeding, with the runway dedicated in October and other buildings, including the main terminal, making progress. Yet there is some uncertainty about the future of the spaceport, including who will be running it.

That uncertainty stems from the change in government in the state, as Susana Martinez (R) succeeded term-limited Bill Richardson (D) as governor on January 1. The change in governors, and political parties, means that heads of many state agencies will be leaving. Rick Homans, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, which runs the spaceport, told the Sante Fe New Mexican last week he hopes to retain his post but wants to have discussions with the Martinez administration about their plans. “I love the project. I am committed to it. I would love to see it through,” he said. “But I need to have further discussions with the new administration about what their goals are with the spaceport and what they want to do with the board and what they’d like to see with the executive director.”

When I spoke with Homans in October, prior to Martinez’s November general election victory, he said that he had briefed Martinez about the project about the past. (Martinez would likely have been familiar with the project from local news coverage, since prior to the election she was district attorney for Doña Ana County, where Las Cruces is located.) Homans has been playing up the spaceport’s successes in the last year, such as in this op-ed on NMPolitics.net. Last week the Las Cruces Sun-News, in an editorial, called on Martinez to retain Homans and his team: “With the spaceport on schedule to open in 2011, this would be a poor time to change leadership.”

What plans Gov. Martinez has for Spaceport America aren’t clear. A Los Angeles Times article claims that Martinez “is looking to privatize operations at Spaceport America” but gives no specifics. During the campaign, Martinez indicated that she didn’t want the state investing more money into the spaceport, saying such “additional large investments would be a misguided use of our taxpayer funds”, although there’s no indication any such “large investments” are planned for the spaceport for the foreseeable future after the completion of the facilities there already under construction. She said she wanted more private investment for any future development costs as well as “expanding the scope of the spaceport beyond personal space flights”.

Update: the Las Cruces Sun-News reported Tuesday that the Martinez administration plans to audit Virgin Galactic’s contract with the spaceport, as well as the spaceport’s finances. Martinez told the paper that she also wants to find out how “we bring private industry to be part of the spaceport, so that eventually state tax dollars aren’t necessary.” The article also notes that the spaceport’s board has called an emergency meeting for Wednesday that, according to the article, will feature a single item: a closed session “to discuss personnel matters”.

Construction delay at Spaceport America

Jeff Foust — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:25:01 +0000

The Air Rescue Fire Facility (ARFF) at Spaceport America, seen earlier this month. (credit: Spaceport America)

Spaceport America officials have stopped work on one of the facility’s buildings until as late as next spring in order to reevaulate the design of its interior, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday. The Air Rescue Fire Facility (ARFF), a building that will be the spaceport’s fire station as well as host the spaceport’s administrative offices, was 70-percent complete last week when officials ordered work on it halted. Rick Homans, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said the work stoppage was designed to allow them reevaulate the interior of the dome-shaped ARFF. “We want to make sure the interior design and functionality works for us and that it is also in sync with the overall look and design of the other components of Spaceport America,” Homans told the Journal. He said that reevaulation would be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2011, at which point work on the building would resume. Any additional costs incurred by the redesign would be “minimal”, he said.

Work on the rest of the spaceport, including its signature terminal building, continues. The runway itself is complete, and officials with the state and its anchor tenant, Virgin America, formally dedicated it last month. It’s unclear if the delay on the ARFF would also delay the overall completion of the spaceport, planned for the middle of 2011.