Vegas firm hopes to launch rockets from Test Site

In a small warehouse on South Valley View Boulevard in Las Vegas, Al Hastings and his co-workers are building rockets.

By the end of the year, Hastings hopes to begin launching them. And, by next year, he plans to have regularly scheduled flights from the Nevada Test Site, providing a service most commercial aerospace contractors are bypassing for bigger opportunities.

Hastings is president of Hastings' Chariots, a two-year-old Nevada company that plans to provide an avenue for scientists to conduct experiments in microgravity.

"We want to be the Federal Express of the microgravity industry," said Hastings, the 37-year-old chief executive who traveled to three continents before deciding the Nevada Test Site best met the needs of Hastings' Chariots and Las Vegas was the ideal headquarters for his corporation.

Now, with the help of engineering educators and students at UNLV, Hastings is getting closer fulfilling the dream. UNLV is so committed to the program that it is considering a name change for the department to reflect the growing emphasis of the Hastings program.

Researchers and officials with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration concur that there should be a large enough market to keep Hastings and his rockets busy.

Microgravity, commonly known as weightlessness, not only occurs in space, but also on vehicles with steep ascents or descents. Hastings plans to provide brief periods of microgravity for researchers by launching rockets on suborbital flights.

When the Hastings' Chariots rockets begin launching commercially in January, they'll fly up to 100,000 feet, providing two minutes of weightlessness for the cargo. The rocket and its payload will parachute to the desert floor at the Test Site, where they will be retrieved and readied for another flight.

Hastings concedes that orbital flights and space shuttles can provide more microgravity time, but researchers who want to get an experiment on a space shuttle have to wait years for the opportunity. Hastings also says his company will make the high-altitude lab affordable.

"Every time a space shuttle is launched," Hastings said, "it costs about half a billion dollars. That's why it costs about $10,000 a pound to send an experiment into space."

The waiting list for space shuttle experiments is now about three to five years, Hastings said.

As it is now, most scientists conduct fewer than 10 experiments in microgravity per project to develop their research.

"You can see why that's not conducive to innovation," Hastings said.

There are other means to provide an environment of microgravity for researchers and some are even less expensive than rockets.

Drop towers are long vertical shafts used to drop packages of experiments, but the weightless environment lasts for only seconds. The Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, for example, has two drop facilities, one a 79-foot tower capable of providing 2.2 seconds of microgravity, the other a shaft 436 feet deep that provides 5.2 seconds of the environment.

There are taller and deeper facilities in Japan providing longer periods of microgravity.

Reduced-gravity aircraft -- the most famous is a KC-135 plane known as "the Vomit Comet" -- offer extended periods of weightlessness by flying parabolic patterns that provide 20-25 seconds of microgravity. The planes climb at a 45-degree angle, cut the engines and dive to provide the weightless environment. Up to 40 of those sessions can occur per flight.

In the future, microgravity experiments will be able to be performed aboard the International Space Station. The orbiting laboratory, being built with the resources of 16 countries, is expected to be operational by 2005.

But a flight to the space station will require a space shuttle launch with the accompanying expenses and scheduling.

Hastings' rockets will be considerably smaller than a space shuttle. They'll be 20 to 30 feet tall with a diameter of 8 inches and will be capable of toting payloads of up to 30 pounds. The cost to the researcher: about $500 per pound.

Because Hastings will be able to turn around his launch vehicles quickly, he said he'll be able to have a launch once a week. That, Hastings said, will benefit researchers who can modify their experiments quickly for subsequent launches.

If Hastings can follow through on his projected launch schedule, days apart instead of months apart like the space shuttles, he should be able to capture a market that has little competition.

Most private rocket launchers have set sites on the high-end, heavy-payload market, hauling satellites into orbit. Small rockets like Hastings' are launched by groups in Europe and Canada. NASA also launches a small number of "sounding rockets" for atmospheric experiments. "It's very promising what they've (Hastings) shown on the low end," said Mark Boudreaux, who heads microgravity research flight planning for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "They're really competent and eager to venture into the market."

Boudreaux explained that the "low end" he was referring to are the low-budget research operations that may have worthwhile projects, but not the finances to afford multiple tests.

"In the class of vehicle Hastings represents, he can really service the education community," Boudreaux said. "His rockets will allow universities and even high schools through appropriate sponsorship access to microgravity."

"There are hundreds of researchers who would be interested in something like this," said Vija Dhir, chairman of UCLA's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

Dhir, whose staff will have a microgravity experiment aboard an upcoming space shuttle flight, said competition is intense for shuttle passage.

"They may pick three or four experiments a year to fly," Dhir said. "Something like this would be attractive to all the others."

Dhir said that while orbiting space shuttles are the ultimate microgravity lab, it has disadvantages. He said instrument packages have to be delivered to Cape Canaveral four months before the flight, inviting the possibility of damage.

He also said he liked the quick turnaround time Hastings plans for his launches, allowing researchers to make adjustments to their experiments that could make data more meaningful.

But the low cost, Dhir said, is what would be most appealing to researchers like him and his team.

Judith Robey, program manager for the Microgravity Research Division of NASA in Washington D.C., said small-scale experiments in drop towers, aboard aircraft and on small rockets can go a long way toward getting a larger experiment aboard a space shuttle.

Robey explained that her division funds research for the so-called "ground-based" tests that include those conducted in drop towers and aboard planes. A peer review panel that has an understanding of microgravity science determines which experiments will be the two or three that get to get in line for the space shuttle.

The division funds less than half of the proposals it receives and those that are funded for ground-based tests can spend their money on contractors like Hastings' Chariots to provide the lab environment for the experiment.

But Boudreaux pointed out that a newcomer to the industry like Hastings will need to establish a track record for reliability before it can get a steady stream of customers.

"The payload may cost tens of millions of dollars," Boudreaux said. "It's important that he prove that he has a vehicle capable of returning the payload in one piece."

That's what Hastings' Chariots is perfecting today, the launch vehicles. The Fiberglas tubes that will be launched from Area 18 of the Test Site will be filled with a fuel mixture of kerosene -- standard jet fuel -- and liquid oxygen.

The flight trajectory would take the rocket virtually straight up and straight down. The recovery area is a circle with a 5-mile radius with the launching pad at the center. Parachutes will deploy from the rocket to prevent the vehicle from being damaged.

Hastings' Chariots' rockets aren't the first to be proposed at the Test Site, but they're on track to be the first to be launched.

Kistler Aerospace, a Kirkland, Wash., company, has proposed launching rockets that would place up to three satellites per launch into low Earth orbits.

Kistler is in the process of securing financing and getting all its regulatory approvals and plans to test its launch vehicle on the Australian coast in 2001. Kistler has to test in Australia because it needs to prove the viability of its reusable rockets before they can be cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly over U.S. airspace.

The Test Site also is one of the proposed homes for the VentureStar project, the next generation of the space shuttle. Currently, there are 18 sites under consideration for VentureStar, which project officials hope to have flying in the next decade.

Hastings' teams is doing everything from staying in touch with researchers to seeking investors and from monitoring the weather patterns of the Test Site to building and testing the rockets.

Hastings said he plans to build a fleet of five rockets. He's considering building one with a diameter of 12 inches to offer a larger payload bay for experiment packages.

Hastings was encouraged to go with the bigger rocket by UNLV professors and students who are helping to coordinate experiment packages that will be flown.

Bill Culbreth, an associate professor at UNLV's Department of Mechanical Engineering, said it was difficult to develop an experiment package in an 8-inch cylinder.

"Some of them (researchers) were planning to put in a video camera to record the experiment, but it was really hard to put a package together at that size," Culbreth said.

Meanwhile, some UNLV students have begun designing their own microgravity experiments since they'll have immediate access to Hastings' rockets. They're also developing some of the electronics components and interfaces for the rockets.

One student has designed an experiment to improve the process to develop something called an "optical aerogel." It's a clear insulating panel whose properties can be improved when manufactured in microgravity conditions.

Culbreth said plans also are being made to include aerospace students in the magnet program at Rancho High School to participate with Hastings.

UNLV signed a collateral research agreement with Hastings' Chariots, giving students access to the experiments. And Hastings serves on an advisory board at UNLV, recommending classes that can help students better understand microgravity and aerospace engineering.

UNLV, which has been working with Hastings since January, added a microcontroller course to the curriculum thanks to the association with the company.

Now, there's a proposal before UNLV administrators to change the name of the department to reflect its additional emphasis. The proposed name: the UNLV Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

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