Unusually Lush Vegetation Hindered Search Effort

What once was launched, has now been found in southern New Mexico... where UP Aerospace reports after five days of searching the not-so-arid desert landscape, it found the landing site Saturday of its unmanned SpaceLoft XL vehicle.

Company personnel are now in the process of recovering the payloads and returning them back to their launch partners.

"Our recovery efforts began almost immediately after the launch and have continued around the clock," said Eric Knight, CEO of UP Aerospace. "The vehicle came down in very challenging terrain, complicated by the unusual levels of vegetation caused by the record-setting monsoon rains this summer."

"But we were absolutely determined to find the vehicle and provide the payloads and experiments back to our launch partners," he continued. "We've spoken to our launch partners this morning, and they're ecstatic over the news of the recovery."

As Aero-News reported, UP Aerospace heralded in the dawn of private spaceflight in New Mexico last Monday, with the launch of its 20-foot-long SpaceLoft XL. Alas, the flight proved to be a less-than-successful christening of the new Spaceport America site... with the rocket falling to Earth approximately 10 seconds after it was launched.

Despite the setback, UP Aerospace remains optimistic whatever issue brought down its first rocket will not prove to be a problem with future launches... although an in-depth investigation of what led to the failure Monday can only now begin.

"Until all facts are assembled, all possibilities remain on the table," said UP Aerospace president Jerry Larson at a Friday news conference. "However, from what we've seen so far, and how well the vehicle was performing until the anomaly, we would be extremely surprised if we discover a major issue. We're looking forward to identifying the anomaly, correcting it, and proceeding with the space-flight missions on our launch calendar."

UP Aerospace is scheduling up to 30 space launches per year from New Mexico's "Spaceport America". The company states the SpaceLoft XL vehicle can launch up to 110 pounds of scientific, educational, and entrepreneurial payloads into space, with an altitude capability of up to 140 miles. Monday's flight was to fly to an apogee of about 70 miles.

FMI: www.upaerospace.com