November 19, 2025 - UP Aerospace Successfully Launches its fifth Separation and Deployment Mission from Spaceport America

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(Spaceport America, NM) - November 19, 2025 - UP Aerospace announced the successful launch and recovery of its SpaceLoft-18 rocket, marking the company's fifth separation and deployment mission and underscoring continued progress toward next generation suborbital flight vehicles.

The SpaceLoft-18 rocket lifted off from Spaceport America at 7:00 a.m., carrying a payload featuring a new deployable heat shield system developed in a collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory, Redwire Space, and NASA Ames Research Center. During ascent, the aeroshell remained stowed until its planned release from the launch vehicle, after which it deployed to support the mission's experimental objectives.

Following separation, the payload initiated its descent onto White Sands Missile Range, protected throughout by the deployed heat shield, which performed as designed and met all mission expectations.  

Upon touchdown, the UP Aerospace and LANL recovery team boarded a Blackhawk helicopter which allowed them to successfully retrieve the payload and return it to the customer at Spaceport America by 10:00 a.m., completing the mission's operational timeline.