Prof. Collicott's AAE 418 Team Attend Launch
Prof. Steven Collicott headed to Spaceport America's vertical launch complex in southern New Mexico the weekend of December 2, 2011 with three students from his AAE418 class. They were on-hand to oversee their experiment on the launch of the Armadillo Aerospace STIG A rocket.
The Purdue SPEAR-3 experiment was designed, built, tested, integrated, and performed by the team which included Michael Croak, Saverio Rotella and exchange student from Malaysia Yi Syuen Li.
AAE 418 team members who did not travel were: Shao Teng Chong, Yuankai Wang and Rozaine Wijekularatne. The experiment studied a liquid and gas flow process that is sensitive to the gravity and acceleration levels encountered during spaceflight.
Designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace to test major components of the future vehicle that will fly Space Adventures customers, the rocket exceeded its projected altitude by reaching 137,500 ft. when it launched on December 4.
The team thanks Armadillo Aerospace and their partners for the launch and NASA for teaming with Purdue to support the technology mission.
Photo Caption
Top ~ Sam Rotella performing fit-check of Purdue SPEAR-3 experiment in the Armadillo STIG A rocket. Saturday Dec. 3, 2011
Bottom L~R after the flight, Collicott, Lim (holding the experiment), Croak, Rotella. Sunday Dec. 4, 2011
Armadillo Aerospace STIG A rocket launch and onboard YouTube video