Jun 20 1998
From The Space Library
The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5), a chapter of the National Space Society, failed in its second attempt to become the first group of amateurs to launch a rocket into space. The society attempted to use a hot-air balloon from a NASA barge in the Gulf of Mexico to launch its rocket, a launch concept known as a rockoon. According to the rockoon concept, a small rocket may "obtain very high altitude because there is little air to slow it down during launch." James A. Van Allen had been the first to fly rockoons in the 1950s, as part of a joint U.S. Navy-University of Iowa project. The U.S. Navy had abandoned the technique after large, ground-based, sounding rockets became available. NASA's MSFC signed a cooperative agreement with HAL5 in 1996, continuing the relationship for the High Altitude Lift-Off mission. MSFC had supplied HAL5 with the barge, helium for the balloon, nitrous oxide for the rocket, and some funds for materials. HAL5 sought to "make space more affordable for students, amateurs, experimenters, and researchers." NASA was examining alternate launch sites and methods in an effort to find ways of reducing the cost of rocket launches.
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