Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) ✅🚀🛰️
20 years ago, June 5 & 6, 2006: I visited the New Mexico Spaceport to see UP Aerospace's new launch pad. This was before Virgin Galactic's runway and terminal were built. So it was a mostly-empty desert with a few dirt roads and this launch pad. It was first. UPA would begin flying commercial suborbital space payloads later that year, and continues to use the site today. #NewSpace #space #business
Jun 6 at 8:33pmWeb
Show threadAstro Hawk (Ian Kluft) ✅🚀🛰️2d ago
I knew the UP Aerospace team because it started as a commercial development of the Civilian Space eXploration Team CSXT amateur rocket. When the CSXT Space Shot 2004 became the first successful amateur rocket to space (after many attempts), I led the Stratofox tracking team that recovered the rocket from deep in the mountains of Nevada's Black Rock desert. When Jerry started UP Aerospace, it gave us all a hint he likes borrowing acronyms from railroads. 😀 #NewSpace #rocketry #space #business
Show threadAstro Hawk (Ian Kluft) ✅🚀🛰️2d ago
The trip home from my NM Spaceport visit 20 years ago became an adventure of its own. Though El Paso TX is closer, I had stuff to see in Albuquerque NM. Weather was unlucky that day with a severe thunderstorm causing ABQ Airport to close temporarily. As I got to the airport, a downburst from the storm hit the runway next to I-25. I saw the dust cloud blowing tumbleweeds across the freeway without touching the ground. Flights were delayed as many diverted elsewhere. #aviation #travel #avgeek
Show threadAstro Hawk (Ian Kluft) ✅🚀🛰️2d ago
When all the delayed incoming flights arrived, I was flying SWA one-stop-same-plane ABQ-LAX-SJC. Luck turned worse: the plane's weather radar failed pre-flight check - new plane needed! Then my luck🍀 improved: ironically since it was 6/6/06, horror movie ads had hyped the day as bad luck - fewer people were flying, like Friday the 13th. So I easily got a seat on a flight boarding at an adjacent gate for same-plane ABQ-SAN-SJC arriving home with no additional delay. 👍 #aviation #travel #avgeek