Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are examining data from a recent successful suborbital rocket launch. On Nov. 19, the Laboratory, in conjunction with commercial partner UP Aerospace, conducted the launch at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. The goal was to test the performance of a new vehicle featuring a deployable heat shield. The heat shield was developed in collaboration with Redwire Space and assistance from the NASA Ames Research Center, which develops the technologies, simulations and scientific foundations that make NASA missions possible.
The aeroshell is a heat-shield structure designed to protect the payload — the systems and components within the shell — from excessive reentry heating. During ascent, the vehicle was released from the rocket’s nose fairing and deployed its experimental heat shield. After apogee is reached, the highest point in the flight’s trajectory, the systems start their descent back to Earth.
Typically, Los Alamos uses flight tests to analyze the performance of new technology under extreme conditions such as high vacuum, reentry heating and high accelerations. The heat shield also serves to slow the descent of the deployed payload by using a folded metal structure that opens like an umbrella. This ensures that the payload can survive the drop, which can reach speeds greater than 2,000 miles per hour.
“The launch director let me flip the switch to fire the rocket,” said Jim Wren, the Lab’s project lead for the launch. “I was really pleased with how smoothly everything went.”
UP Aerospace developed the rocket that transported the experimental heat shield into space. The SpaceLoft-XL 18 rocket is a suborbital research rocket designed to carry scientific instruments or experimental payloads into the upper atmosphere or near space for a short-duration mission — typically just a few minutes — before returning to Earth. The rocket soared to a height of approximately 72 miles above the Earth, deployed the aeroshell, then descended and impacted the Earth’s surface. Cameras, tracking and monitoring systems on the heat shield captured data during the 11-minute flight.
The recovery team then departed to retrieve the experiment and other pieces of the rocket. Scientists say the recovered vehicle did not have significant damage, thanks to its slowed descent from the folded, origami-inspired design.
This launch represents the sixth flight test in a series of launches conducted in New Mexico since 2021. “We're able to test sensors and new experiments with these rapid launches that can take place approximately every six months instead of traditional rocket launches, which are much more expensive and can only be conducted once every few years,” Wren said.
Los Alamos engineer Justin McGlown, senior project leader for Agile Space, praised the many partners that made the launch possible. “All the things that are required to survive the actual flight environment are hard to re-create without a flight environment. Now that we have these commercial rocket companies providing us frequent affordable flights, it's just much faster to build something, instrument it, fly it and test it, and then iterate and improve.”
Spaceport America, where the launch took place, is a state-owned, commercial launch and flight-testing facility that enables both private spaceflight (like Virgin Galactic’s tourism missions) and federally sponsored rocket testing, as well as aerospace research. UP Aerospace maintains a launch complex and payload processing center at the Spaceport.
“New Mexico is a great place to launch rockets,” said engineer Jordan Shoemaker, acting program manager for the Lab’s Stockpile Responsiveness Program. “It's great to be able to just drive a few hours down from Los Alamos to Spaceport America. These launches provide a fantastic economic opportunity for our state while reducing testing costs and increasing how rapidly we can execute these experiments.”
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