Aerospace Company to Launch First Texts To Space – High school students join entrepreneur for historic event on November 12
Satwest, one of the world’s first commercial suborbital research and development companies, is working with in collaboration with NASA and UP Aerospace, to launch a rocket, sending the world’s first texts into space.
Satwest president and CEO, M. Brian Barnett said, “We hope to prove the concept that our proprietary experiment package will provide low cost voice and data communications for the pilots and passengers on suborbital launch vehicles . We want to provide them with Wi-Fi in their spacecraft, so they can communicate using their smart phones, as in any Wi-Fi hotspot. The passengers will be able to send Instagram, Facebook, Tweets, and call their friends and loved ones from space.”
Joining Satwest on this mission will be students at Bosque School’s Physics II lab, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On November 12, 2013, Satwest, will launch a rocket carrying a communications payload, at Spaceport America, located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Once a specific altitude is achieved, a series of thirty texts will be issued by the students, and tweeted live throughout the event, using the hashtag #TextsToSpace. The craft will then return to earth, and a recovery team will retrieve the rocket, and bring it back to Spaceport America. Satwest will open the payload, and confirm receipt of the Bosque texts. This event will mark the first transmissions of mobile texts to outer space.
When planning the project, Barnett’s first thought was to include the students at Bosque. “I have to children at Bosque, and I wanted to give back to them for the education that they have given my family. I knew that I needed a team on the ground to send messages, because I could not be two places at once. So, I approached Bosque, and Physics teacher Ben Curry. Their enthusiasm was incredible. Not many high school students get to work on a real space mission.”
In August of 2011, Satwest was selected by three commercial rocket companies and spaceliners to provide payload integration and flight services to NASA. Virgin Galactic of California, Masten Space Systems of California, and Armadillo Aerospace of Texas, were all awarded contracts by NASA to provide opportunities for engineers, technologists and scientific researchers to fly technology payloads into space. All three companies selected Satwest to join their winning teams. This arrangement marked the first time that NASA has contracted with a commercial partner to provide flights into space on a suborbital spacecraft.
“This is just the beginning of many, many science research payloads that Satwest will develop,” added Barnett. “Satwest is very well positioned to make this happen since we are located in close proximity to Spaceport America. Satwest has over 15 years working with NASA and Spaceport America, and we are well-placed to become the leader in commercial space exploration. We have strong partnerships with the commercial space travel leaders like UP Aerospace and Virgin Galactic – owned by Sir Richard Branson.”
The rocket launch is scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, November 2013, and will last for approximately 13 minutes. People can join the mission from preparation to launch to payload recovery by following the hashtag #TextsToSpace on Twitter beginning 7 a.m. MT.
About Satwest: Satwest is a satellite communications and aerospace company founded in 1999. Our vision has been clear from the beginning: Provide access to the most advanced satellite and space technology to help our world class customer base solve communications problems and make new discoveries. Satwest is a recognized leader in the development of the emerging commercial, suborbital spaceflight industry. Satwest’s professional services include mission planning, production and management, payload development and integration services, and spaceflight access services enabling companies, universities and government agencies to fly their commercial and scientific payloads onboard suborbital launch vehicles.
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