Project HALO (High-Altitude Lift-Off): SL-1
Third Attempt: Pre-Attempt HAL5 Press Release (Text Version - Historical)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 1997
Primary Contact: Greg Allison
HAL5 Project HALO Program Manager
(Evening Phone: 205-859-5538)
Secondary Contact: Ronnie Lajoie
HAL5 Project HALO Logistics Coordinator
(Day Phone: 205-461-3064)
NSS Headquarters Contact: Karen Rugg
National Space Society, Washington, DC
(Day Phone: 202-543-1900)
SECOND ATTEMPT FOR SPACE GROUP TO LAUNCH FIRST AMATEUR ROCKET
INTO SPACE FROM A HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOON ON SATURDAY, MAY 10
Where: Hampstead, North Carolina (20 mi. north of Wilmington)
Alternate Site (if winds change): Shallotte, North Carolina
When: Saturday, May 10 -- Rain/Wind date: May 11
When: Balloon Launch at local SUNRISE (about 6:15 AM EST)
When: Rocket Launch at 9:00 AM EST (2 and 1/2 hours later)
On the morning of Saturday, May 10, a small group of space
enthusiasts will try again 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 first attempt on Saturday, March 22 was scrubbed due to an
electronics problem (since corrected) and increasing winds.
The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5), a chapter of the
grassroots National Space Society (NSS), has spent the past two
years developing and testing components for 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 has updated the rockoon concept using 1990's amateur
rocketry and electronics technology. HAL5's goal is to make
space more affordable for students, amateurs, experimenters,
and researchers. The HAL5 program, started in July of 1994, is
called Project HALO, for High Altitude Lift-Off.
The HALO 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. After constructing a small
rocket motor test facility in early 1995, HAL5 has since
performed over 50 static firings of its hybrid rocket motors.
HAL5 successfully launched a test hybrid rocket from the ground
in Manchester, Tennessee in April of 1996.
The garage-built HALO hybrid rocket, to be launched from off the
coast of southeast North Carolina (the state where amateur flight
was invented), 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 highest hybrid flight to date was flown
on January 8, when a NASA-industry team sent a nitrous-oxide and
HTPB-rubber hybrid sounding rocket from the ground to 119,780 feet.
This attempt will use a larger high-altitude helium balloon made
of clear polyethylene plastic over 100 feet long, but thinner than
a sandwich bag (only 0.35 mils thick). At the launch altitude of
near 105,000 feet, the balloon, which has a volumetric capacity of
141,000 cubic-feet, will expand to 65 feet in diameter.
Floating in the frigid stratosphere, the balloon will be
brittle enough to "pop" when the HALO rocket safely shoots
through it. HAL5 successfully launched a smaller 19,000 cu.ft.
capacity plastic balloon from Huntsville, Alabama in September
of 1996. HAL5 also has successfully sent six smaller latex
rubber balloons to the edge of space, which have carried both
rocket test parts, electronics, and student experiments.
The Project HALO rockoon, if the rocket successfully launches
from the balloon gondola, will become the first amateur rockoon
mission to succeed. Previous rockoon attempts involved solid
rockets, which failed to ignite at altitude. Lessons learned
from those attempts have been incorporated into Project HALO.
Thanks to May's lighter upper altitude winds, the balloon will be
launched near the coast, from a site in Hampstead, North Carolina
(about 20 miles north of Wilmington). May winds will carry
the balloon east as it rises to 105,000 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 also carries an ATV
camera, a smaller B&W model.
Altitude verification for the rocket will be primarily based on
signals from an onboard GPS receiver. Backup will come from
the B&W camera, which is oriented so that the curvature of the
Earth can be viewed, recorded, and later measured to estimate
the altitude.
Site setup will begin on Friday afternoon. Press interviews may
be conducted during this time. Launch operations will begin at
3:00 AM. Tighter security will be enforced until the balloon is
launched (or mission scrubbed). The balloon must launch by 6:30 AM,
to obtain the calmest winds and to satisfy FAA requirements. The
rocket launch will occur 2 and 1/2 hours after the balloon launch
(about 9:00 AM). A press briefing will be held after the balloon
launch, and another after the rocket launch. If May 10 is windy or
rainy, the launch attempt will be postponed until Sunday, May 11.
For more details (including directions, hotels, restrictions,
and requirements), please see the following HALO web site at:
http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/SL-1/
This information can also be requested by sending an E-mail message
to "hal5@advicom.net" or by calling one of the contacts listed.
Revised Press Kits will be available at the balloon launch site,
and will be uploaded to the Web site as soon as possible.
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