[Fwd: Press Release for HALO Sky Launch 2 Mission]
FYI,
Here is some of our guys making a second attempt at being the first
amateur rocketeers to reach space.
--
Mark Reiff <mreiff1@xxxxxxxxxx>
Gratuitous political statement, look here ->
<http://home.earthlink.net/~markreiff/pork.jpg>
"I think we are all trying too hard to push space
versus finding the pulls that attract people and their money."
"The heavens reward great deeds, not excuses."
-- BEGIN included message
To
hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx (Ronnie M. Lajoie)
From
hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx (Ronnie M. Lajoie)
Date
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 04:35:42 -0500 (CDT)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 1998
Primary Contact: Greg Allison
HAL5 Project HALO Program Manager
Daytime Phone: 256-544-4440
Evening Phone: 256-859-5538
Email Address: ghallison@xxxxxxx
(Phone numbers good to June 16, back on June 22
On June 17 and 18, use TBD phone on Web site)
Secondary Contact: Ronnie Lajoie
HAL5 Project HALO Shore Site Coordinator
Daytime Phone: 205-971-3055 (limit 4 messages)
Evening Phone: 256-721-1083 (unlimited messages)
Email Address: Ronnie.M.Lajoie@xxxxxxxxxx, hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx
(Phone numbers good though June 18. On 19 to 21,
use "hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx" and TBD phone on Web site)
NASA MSFC Contact: Vance Houston
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Daytime Phone: 256-544-0200
Email Address: Vance.Houston@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
(Phone number good to June 16, back on June 22)
NSS Headquarters Contact: Karen Rugg
National Space Society, Washington, DC
Daytime Phone: 202-543-1900, ext. 77
Email Address: krugg@xxxxxxx
(Phone number good to June 19, back on June 22)
==============================================================
SPACE GROUP TO LAUNCH FIRST AMATEUR ROCKET INTO SPACE
FROM ATOP A HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON ON SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Where: Barge 60 miles southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana
When: Saturday, June 20 -- Rain/Wind dates: June 21, July 11
When: Balloon Launch shortly after sunrise, 7:00 AM CDT
When: Rocket Launch at 9:30 AM CDT (2-1/2 hours later)
Press Site: Sea Lab on Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, AL
Official Web Site: http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/SL-2/
(Site will be updated frequently through end of mission)
==============================================================
On the morning of Saturday, June 20, a small group of space
enthusiasts will attempt to make space history by sending the
first amateur rocket into space -- and the first hybrid rocket
into space ever. Press and visitors are welcome to attend.
The Press Site will be located at the "Sea Lab" on the east
coast of Dauphin Island, 40 miles south of Mobile, Alabama.
The group is the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5), a
chapter of the grassroots National Space Society (NSS). The
rocket will be launched from a high altitude balloon -- a
concept called a "rockoon". For this reason, HAL5 named its
project High Altitude Lift-Off (HALO).
For safety reasons, the balloon will be launched from a barge
(provided by NASA) out in the Gulf of Mexico, about 60 miles
southeast of New Orleans. June winds will carry the balloon
about 30 miles southwest as it rises to 100,000 feet. The
command to launch the rocket will be sent only once the
balloon is safely over open ocean and the rocket is pointed
away from land.
The balloon gondola will carry an amateur television (ATV)
camera to record the launch live and transmit the color video
back to earth. The frequency is 434.00 MHz, which corresponds
to Cable Ready TV channel 59. The rocket will also carry an
ATV camera, a higher-resolution color model. The frequency is
1255 MHz. The rocket will also being transmitting telemetry
data via APRS packet radio on a FM frequency of 441.050 MHz.
For more details, please see the following Web site:
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~bbrown/
Altitude verification for the rocket will be primarily based on
signals from an onboard Trimble GPS receiver. Backup will come
from accelerometer data, and then from the video camera, which
is oriented so that the curvature of the Earth can be viewed,
recorded, and later measured to estimate the altitude.
The balloon launch is scheduled for 7:00 AM CDT, to obtain calm
winds and to satisfy FAA requirements. Rocket launch will occur
about 2-1/2 hours after the balloon launch (about 9:30 AM CDT).
If June 20 is windy or rainy, the launch will be postponed until
Sunday the 21st, or three weeks later on Saturday, July 11.
Because the balloon will be launched from a barge with very
limited passenger capacity, members of the Press and other
visitors should go to the Press Site to be setup at the
Sea Lab on the east coast of Dauphin Island, 40 miles south
of Mobile, Alabama. The NASA barge will leave Michoud,
Louisiana on Friday morning, providing plenty of time for
reporters who wish to observe the departure to reach the
Dauphin Island site before the Saturday morning balloon launch.
If the recovery boat has room, some members of the Press will
be allowed onboard. It is hoped that the boat will be fast
enough to observe the balloon launch from the barge, then track
the balloon to the recovery point.
For more details (including directions, hotels, restrictions,
and requirements), please see the following HALO web site at:
http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/SL-2/
This information can also be requested by sending an E-mail
message to "hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx" or by calling one of the contacts
listed. Press Kits will be available at the Press Site, and
will be uploaded to the Web site as soon as possible.
==============================================================
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
==============================================================
Via Project HALO, HAL5 is bringing up to modern standards a
launch vehicle concept called a "rockoon". A rockoon is a
rocket that is launched from a high altitude balloon. The
rockoon approach allows a small rocket to obtain a very high
altitude because there is little air to slow it down during
launch. Rockoons were first flown by James Van Allen in the
1950's as part of a joint Navy/university project, but were
abandoned when sufficiently large ground-based sounding
rockets became available.
HAL5 made amateur rocketry history last year (May 11, 1997)
when it successfully performed the first amateur rockoon
mission from a high altitude, and made professional rocketry
history by launching the first hybrid rocket from a high
altitude. For more details on the historic Sky Launch 1
rockoon mission, please see the following HALO web site at:
http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/SL-1/
Since 1994, HAL5 has updated the rockoon concept using modern
amateur rocketry and electronics technology, added to today's
now-affordable composite materials and high altitude balloon
technologies. HAL5's goal is to make space more affordable
for students, amateurs, experimenters, and researchers.
In 1996, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) expressed
to HAL5 its interest in the rockoon approach. In an effort to
find new ways to reduce the cost of rocket launches, NASA is
examining alternate launch sites and methods. HAL5 and NASA
MSFC signed a Cooperative Agreement in October 1996 for the
Sky Launch 2 (SL-2) rockoon mission. For SL-2, HAL5 is
providing the amateur rocket, high altitude balloon, launch
support hardware, tracking equipment, and recovery boat.
NASA MSFC and the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility are providing
an oceangoing barge to serve as the balloon launch platform,
plus helium for the balloon, nitrous-oxide for the rocket, and
some money towards the reimbursement of materials purchases.
HAL5 is raising the rest of its money via its Donation Program.
For more details on NASA's role in the historic SL-2 rockoon
mission, please see the following NASA web site at:
http://infinity.msfc.nasa.gov/
The HALO SL-2 rocket utilizes hybrid propulsion, whereby an inert
solid fuel is kept safely away from a liquid oxidizer until the
rocket is ignited. The solid fuel used for the HALO rocket is
pure asphalt, the same material used on streets and roofs. The
liquid oxidizer used for the rocket is nitrous-oxide, the same
"laughing gas" used by dentists. This simple fuel combination
is 85% as effective as the best aerospace industry solid rocket
propellants (250 vs. 300 vacuum specific impulse).
After constructing a small rocket motor test facility in early
1995, HAL5 performed over 60 static firings of its hybrid rocket
motors. In 1996, HAL5 launched its first hybrid rocket from the
ground, and then in 1997, launched the first hybrid rocket from
a high altitude.
The home-built HALO SL-2 hybrid rocket, to be launched from a
balloon over the Gulf of Mexico, will become the first of its
kind to ever make it into space -- if it successfully exceeds
an altitude of 50 nautical miles (300,000 feet). The official
record for highest altitude achieved by a hybrid rocket is held
by a NASA-industry team who, on January 8, 1997, sent a nitrous-
oxide and HTPB-rubber hybrid sounding rocket from the ground to
20 nautical miles. Unofficially, HAL5 has estimated that its
HALO hybrid SL-1 rocket, launched May 11, 1997, reached an
altitude between 30 and 36 nautical miles. The HALO team has
worked very hard during the past year to ensure that the new
HALO SL-2 rocket will send back data and video throughout its
balloon ascent, rocket trajectory, and landing by parachute.
The high-altitude helium balloon to be used, purchased from
Raven Industries, is made of clear polyethylene plastic over
120 feet long, but thinner than a sandwich bag (only 0.35 mils
thick). At the launch altitude of 100,000 feet, the balloon,
which has a volumetric capacity of 245,000 cubic-feet, will
expand to 78 feet in diameter. Floating in the frigid thin
upper atmosphere, the balloon will be brittle enough to "pop"
when the HALO SL-2 rocket safely shoots through it.
For more information on the entire HALO program, please see
the main Project HALO web site at:
http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/
###
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronnie M. Lajoie Day: 256-971-3055 Eve: 256-721-1083 FAX: 256-971-3333
Newsletter Editor and Web Manager for the NSS Huntsville Alabama L5 Society
1995-1999 Chairman of the National Space Society Chapters' Assembly
E-Mail Address: hal5@xxxxxxxxxxx Web Site: http://advicom.net/~hal5/
THE GOAL OF HAL5 AND THE NSS IS: AFFORDABLE SPACE TRAVEL IN OUR LIFETIME!
-- END included message
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