A small California company is committing to fly a suborbital demonstration flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36 next year.Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif., plans to launch a rocket-powered vehicle that takes off and lands vertically. Company officials said the vehicle would fly to 100,000 feet and then descend back to the launch site. The demonstration flight is a pathfinder to determine whether the company can launch cost-effectively on Florida's Space Coast.
The company intends to provide the research community with low-cost access to the suborbital space environment. Many suborbital research missions now fly on small sounding rockets launched out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va.
Complex 36 is a former Atlas rocket launch site. The Air Force earlier this year issued Space Florida a real property license that enables the state's aerospace economic development agency to make the complex available for commercial launch operations.
Go HERE to see the Space Florida news release.
1 comment:
wow, what a leap forward in Space exploration. Beats that messy old Ares program. That sound you hear is the air being sucked out of 50 years of proud American Space Programs.
Post a Comment