UP Aerospace is a private spacecraft company in the U.S. that was founded in October, 2004. UP Aerospace is Americas affordable space launch resource. It has a fleet of space-flying sounding rockets that they use to provide low-cost space access to businesses and the educational/collegiate sector. They are the first rocket company to make it affordable to launch significant-size payloads and sophisticated experiments into space. UP Aerospace provides complete payload recovery and a wide range of tracking, telemetry and avionics options. The UP Aerospace rockets are named the SpaceLoft and the SpaceLoft XL. The company will be launching these rockets at New Mexicos Southwest Regional Spaceport (SRS). The SRS was built from January - August 2006. New Mexicos SRS is the first launch area for private spacecraft. Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo; will launch there, too. The inaugural launch of the SpaceLoft XL rocket is scheduled for August 14, 2006. The company has the capability to launch up to 30 flights annually. The first launch will include more than 40 experiments from middle schools, high schools and NASA Explorer Schools across the United States (Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, New York). Some of the universities that have payloads are the University of Colorado, Central Connecticut State University and Brown University. The new era of private spacecraft exploration is the era of private spacecraft companies that are making access to Space affordable. The catalyst for the new era began when the Ansari X PRIZE contest was announced on May 18th, 1996. This contest was a $10 million prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition among the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world; The Ansari X PRIZE was awarded to the privately financed team that designed the first private spaceship to successfully launch three humans to a sub-orbital altitude of 62 miles (the definition of Space) on two consecutive flights within two weeks. There were 27 international teams competing to win this prize. The $10 million prize was won on October 4th, 2004 by Burt Rutan and the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team. Their SpaceShipOne spacecraft climbed to 367,442 feet 70 miles high. This flight showed that private industry can build a workable vehicle for sending paying passengers to Space. The UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket is a scale version of the actual rocket. Never before has Estes identified with what is happening in the real world for teachers and students in our educational line of rockets. One of the new features that will be included in this Rocket LAB Pack(12 pack) is a Lesson Guide for this rocket ($15.00 value). The SpaceLoft is an E2X rocket kit that is similar to the Gnome rocket. It is taller than the Gnome and costs the same as the Gnome bulk pack. Students will be able to learn about a real rocket, then build and launch their own SpaceLoft rocket. It will be available October 2006. Specifications: Length: 12.5" (26.0cm) Diameter: 0.54" (13.8mm) Weight: 0.4oz (12g) Max Altitude: 834ft (254m) Recovery: Streamer Fins: Plastic Engines: 1/2A3-2T, 1/2A3-4T, A3-4T, A10-3T