GO FET 2’s second flight test. Photo: Generation Orbit

[Via Satellite 07-20-2015] Generation Orbit Launch Services (GO) completed a second flight of its GO-Flight Experiments Testbed (GO-FET). The flight test is a key milestone on the company’s roadmap to develop affordable air-launched rocket systems for access to space and for hypersonic flight research.

GO-FET serves as a captive-carry research platform for maturing mechanical, thermal, avionics, and communications technologies for future spacecraft and rocket applications. The most recent flight carried a primary research payload for a third-party customer. In addition, the flight carried experiments related to heat transfer measurements, propellant tank insulation materials, and a proprietary ground-to-space communications technology for GO’s partner company SpaceWorks under its new project Blink Astro.

The flight included a ride-along experiment built by a team of five local Atlanta, Ga. high school students as well. The prototype 1U CubeSat, designed and built in three weeks, is constructed to collect atmospheric properties, position, and spacecraft attitude data as part of SpaceWorks Enterprises’ annual Aerospace Summer Training and Research Opportunity (ASTRO) program.

GO is targeting a first launch of the suborbital GOLauncher 1 in 2017, which will influence and lead into the GOLauncher 2 vehicle for delivering payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). A larger vehicle known as GOLauncher 3 is also in the works.