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Associated Press
7 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
UP Aerospace Successfully Launches Maiden Flight of the Spyder Hypersonic Rocket
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., June 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UP Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of its high-performance Spyder rocket. The maiden flight took place at 7:00 AM MST at Launch Complex 36, marking a new era in hypersonic mission capabilities. The mission reached the threshold of hypersonic speeds similar to the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket missions that have been operational for 20 years. The mission was funded by the Stockpile Responsiveness Program (SRP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and was executed with the support of the Navy White Sands Detachment. The LANL payload test vehicle was successfully deployed in flight. Spyder was specifically designed to support hypersonic missions reaching speeds of Mach 10. The launch vehicle is the result of an eight-year collaboration between UP Aerospace, Cesaroni Aerospace, NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since 2005, UP Aerospace and Cesaroni Aerospace have worked closely to develop cutting-edge solid rocket motors technologies including the Spyder booster and upper stage motors. Future developments of Spyder include the maximum performance booster motor and multi upper stage Spyder variants capable of achieving altitude's approaching 300 km to support a wide variety of hypersonic mission objectives. For over 16 years UP Aerospace has been providing launch services supporting a variety of customers including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and LANL, and began developing Spyder technologies under the NASA 'Tipping Point' contract awarded in 2017. The Spyder rocket was developed to provide enhanced mass lifting and speed performance capabilities to support thermal protection system development, re-entry capsule stability and control evaluations, and high speed suborbital flight testing capabilities at a greatly reduced time and cost. Jerry Larson, President and CEO of UP Aerospace, commented on the achievement: 'The successful launch of Spyder-1 sets the stage for the next mission, which will integrate guidance and control systems into the Spyder-2 vehicle. We are excited for its upcoming launch, scheduled for early 2026.' View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE UP Aerospace, Inc.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
UP Aerospace Successfully Launches Maiden Flight of the Spyder Hypersonic Rocket
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., June 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UP Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of its high-performance Spyder rocket. The maiden flight took place at 7:00 AM MST at Launch Complex 36, marking a new era in hypersonic mission capabilities. The mission reached the threshold of hypersonic speeds similar to the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket missions that have been operational for 20 years. The mission was funded by the Stockpile Responsiveness Program (SRP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and was executed with the support of the Navy White Sands Detachment. The LANL payload test vehicle was successfully deployed in flight. Spyder was specifically designed to support hypersonic missions reaching speeds of Mach 10. The launch vehicle is the result of an eight-year collaboration between UP Aerospace, Cesaroni Aerospace, NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since 2005, UP Aerospace and Cesaroni Aerospace have worked closely to develop cutting-edge solid rocket motors technologies including the Spyder booster and upper stage motors. Future developments of Spyder include the maximum performance booster motor and multi upper stage Spyder variants capable of achieving altitude's approaching 300 km to support a wide variety of hypersonic mission objectives. For over 16 years UP Aerospace has been providing launch services supporting a variety of customers including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and LANL, and began developing Spyder technologies under the NASA "Tipping Point" contract awarded in 2017. The Spyder rocket was developed to provide enhanced mass lifting and speed performance capabilities to support thermal protection system development, re-entry capsule stability and control evaluations, and high speed suborbital flight testing capabilities at a greatly reduced time and cost. Jerry Larson, President and CEO of UP Aerospace, commented on the achievement: "The successful launch of Spyder-1 sets the stage for the next mission, which will integrate guidance and control systems into the Spyder-2 vehicle. We are excited for its upcoming launch, scheduled for early 2026." View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE UP Aerospace, Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
State environment department adds terms for Los Alamos National Lab radioactive gas release
A Flanged Tritium Waste Container (FTWC) is a stainless-steel certified pressure vessel designed for long-term storage of tritium-contaminated waste items. The Laboratory is planning to vent headspace gases from four of these containers. (Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory) The New Mexico Environment Department says Los Alamos National Laboratory will need to meet additional conditions before the state will sign off on a release of radioactive gas, and lambasted the lab for allowing the problem to mount over decades. The issue concerns four containers the lab packed in 2007, which contain radioactive gas tritium and some hazardous waste, and require pressure release by 2028 in order to be transported and disposed of. LANL has requested state officials sign off on a plan to release small amounts of gas over time to relieve the pressure, and said the releases will not harm the environment and human health. Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, can be naturally occurring or a byproduct from nuclear research, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA characterizes the gas as a lower threat, emitting radiation that often cannot penetrate the skin and leaves the body quickly when consumed as tritiated water. In a June 9 letter to officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration and private contractor Triad National Security, which operate LANL, NMED Secretary James Kenney decreed the lab will need to hire an independent technical reviewer for the plan; hold public meetings and tribal consultations; and submit to an audit of hazardous waste disposal operations, before approval will be given. 'In closing, the historical gross mismanagement of these waste streams by DOE and NNSA have placed NMED in an untenable situation. Now, the risk of inaction poses a far greater threat than a technical solution, but no technical solution is free from risk,' Kenney wrote. 'Your disregard of state laws and rules governing these wastes for almost 20 years greatly exacerbated this situation and put New Mexicans, tribal communities, and our environment at risk.' The state believes the laboratory can conduct the steps needed for approval within three months, New Mexico Environment Department Resource Protection Division Director Rick Shean said in an interview with Source NM Tuesday. He said the time pressure from LANL on the plan could have been mitigated in the years since the waste containers were found in 2007. 'If they had dealt with that closer to that discovery time, we wouldn't be in this situation right now,' Shean said. 'So it was their lack of action when the problem was identified that has made this problem worse.' The letter accompanied a complaint the New Mexico Environment Department filed over a failure of the federal government to fund the state's independent oversight of national lab activities. While the funding was eventually restored, the complaint said, the department incurred a little more than $8,400 in administrative costs and jeopardized water, air and soil monitoring programs — including for tritium releases. The complaint requests that federal officials sign a commitment for future funds, issue reports to Congress on the funding and explicitly request the NNSA be named as a responsible party. Federal officials have the chance to appeal the complaint in a hearing process before NMED. Source NM emailed officials at Triad and the NNSA for comment late afternoon Tuesday, and will update the stories with further statements as needed.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As drought threat looms, Los Alamos National Lab works to reduce its wildfire risk
Burned trunks from previous fires remain in the scrub oak brush and stands of aspens in the Jemez mountainside just overlooking portion of Los Alamos National Laboratory property. LANL leadership told media during a May 28 tour that they were taking steps to prepare and mitigate the risk of wildfires. (Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory) As New Mexico water and fire managers prepare for increased drought and wildfire danger this summer, Los Alamos National Laboratory officials say the lab has taken steps to mitigate those threats on its campus. LANL provided a media tour mid-week to highlight those steps, but did not allow outside photography or recording. 'We're very proud of our preparedness efforts for wildfire,' said Deputy Laboratory Director of Operations Mark Davis from the floor of the Emergency Operations Center, as videos of the 2022 Cerro Pelado fire played across six screens on the wall. 'We want to show our efforts to communicate how our mitigation efforts will protect the lab, workforce, community and environment.' The state has identified the towns of Los Alamos and White Rock as high risk areas for wildfire threats, including LANL, which spans 36 square miles of mesas and canyons. The lab and surrounding town have been evacuated twice in the past 30 years due to fires. That included evacuations for two weeks during the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, which burned 43,000 acres total, including 45 lab buildings and 7,500 acres of LANL property. Los Alamos evacuated for another 10 days during the 2011 Las Conchas fire, which burned more than 156,000 acres, though only one acre on the lab's property. In 2022, during the same time the Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon fires raged, the Cerro Pelado fire, also caused by a controlled burn, sparked up and ultimately burned 45,000 acres, requiring the lab to move to remote work in preparation for an evacuation. In 2022, at the request of the Biden Administration, LANL released its Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Plan, which showed that increased wildfire presented the highest risks to equipment, electricity systems, onsite radioactive waste processing, buildings, water systems and communications systems. Critics say climate threats to the laboratory are compounding. LANL's proposed thinning is 'a slow job, but certainly necessary,' said Greg Mello, the executive director of nuclear nonproliferation nonprofit Los Alamos Study Group. But he said the hazards with climate change are stacking up. 'We just wish that the laboratory wasn't straining against every single environmental constraint that there is on that plateau,' Mello said. 'The laboratory is too big and trying to do too much in a place that was never appropriate for a laboratory of the present scale, let alone the additional laboratory facilities and staff that they envision.' The approximately 18,000 people employed at LANL work mostly in science and engineering, from modeling infectious diseases to increasing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. 'Our missions are vital and critical to national security and they cannot fail,' Davis said. The Jemez wilderness bears scars from the Cerro Grande and Las Conchas fires. Large bald patches with skinny charred remains of the ponderosa pines stand among scrub oak brush replacing the once-forested area. Recent scattered rainstorms offered a small reprieve, but the area remains in Stage 1 fire restrictions — an elevated threat level that restricts all campfires or outdoor burning. Laboratory facilities are interspersed on the top of mesas to higher elevation ponderosa pine forests, separated by canyons and arroyos filled with brush. The lab is bordered by federally managed forests; San Ildefonso and Jemez Pueblos; and Santa Fe and Los Alamos County land. The patchwork of agencies has complicated firefighting and mitigation efforts in the past, said Jeff Dare, who leads the Emergency Operations Center, but Cerro Pelado offered a framework for more cooperation with members of county government and liaisons for surrounding federal agencies and tribal governments. The lab is part of the Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Response Agreement, which allocates additional resources such as helicopters and personnel to fight any wildfire that does appear, Dare said, adding: 'It protects the laboratory before it can get here.' The more recent focus has been trimming back the areas around lab buildings, roads and utility lines, said Richard Nieto, LANL's wildland fire program manager. Trimming has occurred on an estimated 12% to 15% of lab property. 'Hope is not a strategy,' Nieto said, adding that the area needs to better adapt to fires when they happen. 'This area was meant to burn; it's what we have to deal with, ecologically.' But overgrowth is a challenge. Much of the higher-elevation ponderosa forests sport 400 to 1,300 trees per acre, rather than the healthier 50 to 150 trees per acre, he said. Habitats for two endangered species and archeological sites also require consideration. Beyond trimming, the lab is working on developing plans for prescribed burns, but will take another three to five years to realize, he said. On the other side of lab property, fences looped with concertina wire and sporting signs warning of radiological hazards contain Area G. Vaguely merengue- shaped white tents — coated in fireproof material — stand amid the juniper and piñon scrub. Inside, under crisscrossed steel frames, stacked white containers on metal pallets contain legacy waste from the lab's work in the nuclear program. The facilities are geared to reducing fire concerns, said Gail Helm, the facility operations director for N3B, which is contracted to manage the 10-year $2 billion dollar cleanup of Cold War Era legacy waste. The tents include fire detection and suppression. Concrete barricades surround them to prevent vehicle accidents and potential fires. Under the Stage 1 fire restrictions, a water truck remains onsite at all times. To the west of Area G lies Technical Area 53, where the lab logs and stores new transuranic nuclear waste — such as gloves contaminated with plutonium — produced at the new plutonium pit production site. The waste is eventually disposed off-site at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project outside of Carlsbad. Thomas Vigil, the deputy group leader at the Chemical and Waste Facilities said LANL is doing 'its due diligence' to follow every protocol to keep the public and workers safe. 'This is my state, this is where we live,' he said. 'I live just down the road, and it's important to me.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Small business owners invited to meet with LANL scientists at Tuesday event
An event designed to connect local business owners with some of the brightest minds at Los Alamos National Laboratory will take place Tuesday in Santa Fe. The event, presented by the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program, will provide participating business owners with the chance to interact with LANL scientists to work out any technical challenges or other issues they may be facing. According to a news release, the event will feature a 'matchmaking' segment during which business owners will meet one on one with scientists to discuss how to take advantage of their expertise. That will be followed by a casual networking session. Sanna Sevanto, a LANL scientist who has taken part in two of the events in the past, said she and her associates at the lab love participating in the gathering each year, partly because it represents a departure from much of the work they normally do. 'The scientists feel like it makes a difference with the companies,' she said. 'With many of their projects, they don't see immediate results. But in this case, they're directly solving challenges so [the companies] can go forward.' Savanto said LANL scientists are eager to tackle all sorts of challenges on behalf of business owners. A typical issue might be a company that does not have the means or equipment to test a new product to verify its viability. She said LANL scientists sometimes can perform that task for the business, helping prepare the product for the market. In other instances, the LANL staff can help solve a more direct problem. The small businesses that are eligible to participate in the event include farms, she said, so if an orchard owner is having issues with frostbitten crops, LANL scientists might be able to help them find an innovative, affordable way to keep their trees warm enough to avoid that fate. 'It is rewarding,' Savanto said. 'Our researchers and technicians love these projects because we are interacting with people directly.' The event is open to New Mexico small business owners who are experiencing a problem that is slowing or stopping their production. The event normally is limited to 15 businesses. That number already has been met this year, LANL spokesperson Avery Arena said, but officials have decided to keep registration open through the weekend to accommodate more businesses. The event takes place from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on the LANL campus in Santa Fe. Those taking part in the event will receive additional information after registering at A spokesperson declined to provide the address as a security measure, but participating businesses will receive the location after they register.
