An Experimenter's Experiences in Early Commercial Suborbital Flight

The emerging commercial suborbital rocket industry in the U.S. presents new opportunities for research and education missions. Some companies have been publicized by the world's media and others are lower-profile. Additionally, some companies were created for the space tourism market and others have no current plans to fly humans at all. Most companies already have a Payload User's Guide published at their websites. The time for experimenters to take note of this industry is now, because in early 2014 a number of these companies were already operational or in flight test phase of their business development. When thousands of dollars, instead of millions for traditional NASA or European Space Agency (ESA) sounding rockets, are needed for a suborbital flight, many more researchers will be able to afford suborbital testing and research. In general, these rocket companies seek to provide at least three minutes of high-quality weightless test times from approximately 60 km to 100 km in altitude, and back to 60 km. Purdue University has been fortunate to have secured numerous launches for small payloads during these developmental and early operational years of the industry. Lessons from these launches include lessons in design, payload environment, procedures, launch site infrastructure, and travel preparations.