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LOHAN's Plucky Playmonaut touches down at Spaceport America

El Reg recce team scouts New Mexico facility

Mission Control

We resisted the temptation to overpower Bill and head off in search of Richard Branson's black leather swivel chair and cat litter tray, because the embearded billionaire is much more likely to be running ops from the nearby admin building.

As well as offices, the dome contains the spaceport's impressive firefighting kit...

The firefighting trucks at Spaceport America

...and yes, it has a mission control centre, much to the delight of David:

David in mission control at Spaceport America

If all of this looks like a frivolous jaunt, be aware that another purpose of our visit was to pinpoint an exact landing spot for the Vulture 2 and report back on the surrounding terrain, at the request of autopilot wranglers Linus Penzlien and Andrew Tridgell.

Panoramic view of the runway centred on north

Panoramic view of the runway centred on south

That done, complete with the illustrative spaceway panoramas seen above, we also checked out comms, internet connections, storage and anything else we might need at the facility, to ensure it's all is on hand and available when the big day arrives.

And with our mission accomplished, there was no way I was going to pass up a labcoat and pipe combo photo opportunity, for LOHAN's boffinous scrapbook:

Lester on the runway in his SPB lab coat

Lovely. Thanks very much to Bill for opening the spaceport gates for us, and we look forward to returning soon.

Regarding spaceplane imports, motor reload acquisition and LOHAN's current status with the FAA, can you guess which one of these is not going according to plan? More follows ... ®

Bootnote

For a bit of fun, we slapped the GoPro 2 on the car for the trip from Albuquerque to Truth or Consequences, and David put together this timelapse representing around three-and-a-half hours down the New Mexico highways:

Good work, and it's worth noting that David took time off work to travel to New Mexico with me. Without him and all our magnificent volunteers, we'd have no chance in getting off the ground.


The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator, sponsored by...

  • EXASOL logo
  • Pulse_Eight
  • SecQuest logo
  • Lucidica logo
  • NXT logo

...and with the invaluable support of...

  • Edge Research Laboratory logo
  • Space Graphic Solutions logo
  • 3D Robotics logo
  • 3T RPD logo
  • University of Southampton logo
  • Applied Vacuum Engineering logo
  • Escher Technologies
  • Flashpoint Fireworks logo
  • HAB Supplies logo
  • Rock 7 logo
  • Random Engineering logo

More from the lovely LOHAN:

  • You can find full LOHAN coverage right here.
  • If you're new to LOHAN, seek out our mission summary for enlightenment.
  • There are photos our our magnificent Vulture 2 spaceplane here, and detailed structural plans here.
  • For your further viewing pleasure, we have all our photographic material stored on Flickr.
  • Our LOHAN and Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) videos live on YouTube.
  • We sometimes indulge in light consensual tweeting, as you can see here.

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