Cadets a hit at historic air and space expo

By Lt. Col. Lynnane George and
Maj. Todd Nathaniel
Department of Astronautics

Cadet 1st Class Dean Milner explains FalconSat to a
Holloman AFB Airman.
The first "live fly" air and space expo was held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual X PRIZE Cup competition at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Oct. 26 and 27.

It was the largest event in the history of southern New Mexico and attracted an estimated 85,000 visitors from around the world.

The Academy's Department of Astronautics sent five FalconSAT, FalconOPS and FalconLAUNCH cadet program representatives there to display and discuss their senior capstone projects. Twenty-eight Space Club cadets also attended.

The cadets display booth featured small satellite models, rocket parts and educational tools to help explain their projects to visitors. Media representatives and an estimated 6,500 youth from across the state visited the event center and Academy booth. The cadets were popular with the students and were asked to sign hundreds of autographs.
Second Lieutenant Chase Scully, a 2007 Academy graduate stationed at Holloman, visited the Academy booth and was impressed.

"I know as a grad that any increased visibility for the great things we do at the Academy is awesome," the grad said. "I heard a lot of great things about the booth, and I enjoyed seeing the display." The Ansari X PRIZE, known to many as the "original" X PRIZE, was the $10 million purse for a private company to reach space and repeat the feat within
one week's time.

Unlike past X PRIZE events held at White Sands, this year's event was combined with an air show. It was the first "live fly" air and space show in the nation. Cadets watched as AWACS, B-1, F-4, C-5, KC-10, F-15, F-16, F-22, V-22, B-25, P-51 and C-130 aircraft took turns in the sky and then they took tours of the aircraft and interacted with the crews on the ground.

"I almost had the C-130 crew convinced to give us and our bus a quick ride home," said Cadet 4th Class Matt Masters.

This was also the final public aerial demonstration of the F-117, which is being retired from the Air Force inventory. Cadets 1st Class Dean Milner and Liz Bupane represented the FalconSAT program, a one-year long senior capstone program involving the design, fabrication, testing, launching and/or operation of a real satellite in space.

"It was a great experience to talk with other people with the same goals and aspirations we have and to see what other institutions are doing with their space technologies," Cadet Bupane said.

"The greatest part about the trip was explaining to kids what we do and seeing their growing interest," Cadet Miller explained. "The scariest part was answering questions from really smart people who already knew the answer." Cadet 1st Class Paul Caruso represented the FalconOPS program, which gives cadets a chance to learn how to
operate and fly satellites they launch as part of the FalconSAT program.

"I was surprised how many universities and private companies do what we do on a regular basis- build, launch and control satellites," Cadet Caruso said. "We're fortunate to have DoD funding and launch vehicles to make the program possible."

Chief Engineer Cadet 1st Class Jacob Rohrbach and propulsion team member Cadet 1st Class Jared Thompson represented the FalconLAUNCH program, which launches a cadet-built sounding rocket every year, with a goal of reaching 330,000 feet, with a 5 kg payload to perform near-space research.

"As a senior in the Astro program I have a responsibility to motivate and inspire kids to pursue science and engineering," Cadet Rohrbach said. "This TDY allowed me to do that." "I intend to go back in a few years and watch future Astro cadets with a sign in
front of their booth that says "First undergrads to space," while Embry-Riddle is still
trying to catch up," Cadet Thompson said. "Sharing the Academy experience and the FalconLaunch/Sat program with others was worth every minute of the trip."