SpeedUp begins
tethered flight testing of their Laramie Rose entrant at the Northrop Grumman
Lunar Lander Challenge. The attitude control system tested here controls orientation only;
no attempt is made to compensate for lateral drift. As such, these short flights confirmed
successful orientation compensation.
An alternate view of one of the
better flights is shown below. Note the vehicle maintains a vertical orientation without
wobbling, or any over or under damping, and simply drifts toward the camera until hitting
the tether limit.
January 19, 2008 - Payload Specialties signs a Memorandum of Understanding, agreeing on terms for ten launches
of Payload Specialties' Piperr and Scion rockets off of Frontier Astronautics' launch
site. The rockets will take payloads to 100,000 ft.
November 18, 2007 - Frontier Astronautics and X-L Space Systems begin on-site production of hydrogen peroxide. 70 to
99% hydrogen peroxide will be available in 500 lbm quantities to other space companies.
Frontier Astronautics is working in
conjunction with Michael Carden and his company X-L Space Systems. Michael Carden is
a USAF space systems engineer who designed some of the largest peroxide propellant
concentrators in the world. His production
equipment has been thoroughly tested and shipping of hydrogen peroxide to other space
companies will begin this December.
Beal Aerospace fires their BA-810
engine using X-L Space Systems' hydrogen peroxide.
October 26th, 2007 - SpeedUp
displays their Laramie Rose entrant at the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander
Challenge at Holloman AFB. This vehicle is also SpeedUp' proof of concept for their flying
motorcycle idea.
September 25th, 2007 - Stone Aerospace chooses
Frontier Astronautics to design an Attitude Control System (ACS) for Stone Aerospace's
autonomous submersible vehicle. This vehicle will probe yet-unseen fresh water lakes under
the permanent ice shelf in Antarctica.
July 26, 2007 - SpeedUp's Laramie
Rose hot fire vane mapping. The vanes' actuators are angled up in order to tuck under
the landing gear.Three seperate three-axis (x, y and z) load cells measure the forces of
the vanes that will be used to control the vehicle in flight.
Click on picture for video:
July 17, 2007 - Control vanes installed and tested on the SpeedUp's Laramie
Rose. Only three vanes are required for full attitude control.
Note that the vanes start out slightly misaligned.
By using limit switches and feeding back the sensed positions of each vane, the vanes
become synchronized.
Click on picture for video:
June 28, 2007 - Frontier Astronautics hosts an open house and demonstrated a
static firing of SpeedUp's Laramie Rose over the flame trench.
May 24, 2007 -
Frontier Astronautics supports Masten Space Systems'
with initial systems integration. Masten successfully fires one of their engines on the
XA-0.1 vehicle.
Click on picture for video:
April 13, 2007 - The Asp™ engine being developed for the SpeedUp LLC vehicle
has undergone several test firings at the Frontier Astronautics engine testing facilities.
The Asp™ has demonstrated over 2000 lbm of thrust.
Click on picture for video:
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March 23, 2007 - Frontier Astronautics presents at the Space Access 2007. You
can download our 2007 Power Point presentation here.
February 1, 2007 - SpeedUp
announces plans to compete in the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
Frontier Astronautics will design and fabricate the SpeedUp LLC vehicle
structure, engine and attitude control system.
December 8, 2006 -
Masten Space Systems and Frontier Astronautics sign a third contract to upgrade the XA-0.1
ACS for longer flight times. This is so XA-0.1 can compete in the Northrop Grumman Lunar
Lander Challenge, Level Two which requires 180 seconds aloft. The XA-0.1 ACS will be
upgraded with a GPS unit as well as additional code to increase landing accuracy.
October 21, 2006 - Frontier Astronautics demonstrates an ACS demonstrator, known as
the "Ice Cream Cone" at the 2006 X Prize Cup. Essentially an inverted
cone that maintains its balance on its point by sensing which way it is falling and then
firing any of a combination of eight cold gas thrusters. This demonstrates the basic
control theory for keeping a rocket flying vertically.
Click on picture for video:
May 30, 2006 - XA-0.1 contract is completed. Masten Space Systems contracts with
Frontier Astronautics to design the Attitude Control System for XA-0.2.
March 30, 2006 - Frontier Astronautics obtains a decommisioned Atlas E missile site for
rocket engine testing as well as rocket flights. Frontier Astronautics begins the
application process with the FAA/AST for a spaceport license.
Atlas E site circa 1960
August 9, 2005 - Masten Space Systems
chooses Frontier Astronautics to design the Attitude Control System (ACS) for their XA-0.1
vertical take-off, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket vehicle.
