Purdue will have a payload on the first reuse flight (Mission 1) of the EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies Suborbital Autonomous Rocket with GuidancE (SARGE) March 2.

The “Purdue Research and Educational Facility for Exos Rockets” (PREFER) is a prototype multi-user payload rack for SARGE. The structural portions of PREFER are a joint project between AAE and the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology in which students of Professor Steven Collicott in AAE and Sergey Dubikovsy, an associate professor in aviation technology, collaborated to design and create a payload rack to meet the novel and real-world needs of the re-usable commercial sub-orbital rocket industry. 

PREFER also contains sensors to measure and record air pressure inside of the payload section of the rocket and temperatures at a number of points in the payload section. This data will help to validate the usefulness of this rocket for both education and scientific research payloads in the future.

“The collaboration with EXOS which has led to the launch of our student PREFER payload is an excellent illustration of the wonderful opportunities for our students and graduates in today's aerospace industry,” Collicott says. “We are grateful for the long-running cooperation which has brought both EXOS and Purdue to this exciting moment.”