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NM spaceport To Host Launch Of Student Experiments

By KRWG News

Truth or Consequencs, New Mexico – UPHAM, N.M. (KRWG) Students from New Mexico, Texas and Arizona are gathering at Spaceport America to see a year's worth of work launched briefly into space on a rocket.

Twenty-seven experiments are part of this year's annual student launch sponsored by NASA through its Summer of Innovation program.

Engineers from UP Aerospace have prepared the SL-5 rocket for lift off Friday morning. The rocket is expected to take the students' experiments 72 miles high. The rocket will travel at Mach 5, or 3,800 mph.

After the payload reaches its maximum altitude, a parachute will deploy and the experiments will return to earth so data can be downloaded by the students.

The experiments range from tracking temperature and radiation changes to whether a cell phone is capable of receiving a text message during flight.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. KRWG