posted 04-23-2008 01:27 PM               

Lockheed Martin Corporation is now using the spaceport to advance some of its less-publicized technology.

This prototype of Lockheed Martin's new spacecraft is only one-fifth the size the future vehicle would be.

It looks a bit like the space shuttle and would fly to space and return the same way. But even the big version would not carry people, just satellites.

The goal is to get to orbit faster and cheaper thanks to an automated reusable spacecraft run by its own computers and just a handful of people for a launch crew.

"Doing test work out here at the spaceport allows us to kind of validate those kinds of activities and use those to predict what the future larger systems would be," Al Simpson of Lockheed Martin told KRQE News 13.

posted 10-15-2009 09:34 AM               

A reusable rocket plane has made a successful test flight from New Mexico's Spaceport America — a prototype craft built to showcase proprietary advanced launch technologies.

The small unpiloted vehicle soared into New Mexico skies on Oct. 10, making use of launch services provided by UP Aerospace of Denver, Colo.

"The effort was similar to the activity that we've done in the past," said Slater Voorhees, project lead for Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colorado.

The most recent test was the third in a series. Previous flights took place in December 2007 and in August 2008 -- although the second flight suffered an in-flight anomaly causing loss of the craft.

"This one was a success. It met all of our mission success goals," Voorhees explained.

Credit: Lockheed Martin