Generation Orbit Completes Second Flight Test
Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO) completed a second flight today of its GO-Flight Experiments Testbed (GO-FET). The flight test is a key milestone on the company’s roadmap to develop affordable air-launched rocket systems for access to space and for hypersonic flight research.
GO’s Flight Experiments Testbed serves as a captive-carry research platform for maturing mechanical, thermal, avionics, and communications technologies for future spacecraft and rocket applications. Typical flights reach high altitudes and provide a wide range of maneuvers and flight loads of interest to the aerospace community. Onboard today’s flight was a primary research payload for a third-party customer. In addition, the flight carried experiments related to heat transfer measurements, propellant tank insulation materials, and a proprietary ground-to-space communications technology for our partner company SpaceWorks under its new project Blink Astro.
Today’s flight also carried a ride-along experiment built by a team of five local Atlanta high school students. Over a period of three weeks in June, the students designed and built a prototype 1U CubeSat to collect atmospheric properties, position, and spacecraft attitude data as part of SpaceWorks Enterprises’ annual ASTRO (Aerospace Summer Training and Research Opportunity) program. ASTRO is a hands-on program designed to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) interest in promising high school students and to encourage them to enter an aerospace-related field of study in college. ASTRO is in its third year. Generation Orbit is committed to providing similar flight opportunities onboard its GO-FET to future student CubeSat teams throughout Georgia and Florida.
The GO-FET is a commercially available flight test service useful for raising the technology readiness level (TRL) of laboratory and bench top technologies. Flights are conducted in partnership with Phoenix Air Group of Cartersville, GA. Today’s flight was also supported by engineers from Terminal Velocity Aerospace, LLC of Atlanta, GA.
For additional details contact:
Mr. A.J. Piplica
Chief Operating Officer
Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc.
3353 W. Hospital Avenue, Chamblee, GA 30341
(404) 991-2212
aj.piplica@generationorbit.com
About Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO)
Atlanta-based Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO) focuses on providing fast, flexible, and dedicated space transportation services for small payloads. GOLauncher 2 will supply microsatellite, nanosatellite, and CubeSat customers with reliable and affordable access to space. GOLauncher 1 will serve as an affordable boost platform for future hypersonic flight test and suborbital research. The unique air launch approach developed by GO and its development partners offers flexible launch capabilities and is poised to reduce fixed infrastructure needs, launch costs, and the time from contract signature to launch. Air-launch system experience at GO dates back over 10 years, providing a distinct advantage throughout the design and analysis process. As a systems integrator, GO combines multiple aspects of the launch architecture to provide a streamlined service to scientists, researchers, and industry customers.
For more information, visit GO on the web at www.generationorbit.com. Follow GO on Twitter @generationorbit.
