- Credit: NASA
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — It’s a big space week here for New Mexico.
Preparations are underway for a major educational launch from the state’s Spaceport America and NASA’s preparing Pad Abort 1 – a step to develop safer vehicles for human spaceflight applications.
The New Mexico Space Grant Student Launch from Spaceport America is Tuesday, May 4. Students from local area high schools, colleges and universities will fly their experiments aboard an early morning liftoff of a suborbital SpaceLoft XL rocket.
On May 6, at the neighboring U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, NASA and Lockheed Martin teams are slated to conduct Pad Abort 1. This will be the first fully integrated test of the launch abort system being developed for the Orion crew vehicle. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Orion.
Weather at the moment appears to be cooperating for the two launch activities.
By Leonard David