Satwest partners with high school students for historical event.

By: Satwest

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-- Satwest, one of the world’s first commercial suborbital research and development companies, is partnering with Bosque School, working with the school’s Physics II lab, in order to send the world’s first texts into space.“Satwest is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with this group of innovative young people. We look forward to their participation in this mission; it’s truly history in the making."Satwest, in partnership with private spaceflight company UP Aerospace, will launch a rocket carrying Satwest’s communication payload at Spaceport America located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The students will be following the mission via the hashtag #TextsToSpace. Once a specific altitude is achieved, a series of thirty texts will be issued by the students, and tweeted live throughout the event. Once the craft has returned to earth, a recovery team will return the rocket to Spaceport America. Satwest will retrieve the payload, and confirm receipt of the Bosque texts.Los Angeles based production company Hammer Down Productions will be on-site at Spaceport to film the experiment as a behind-the-scenes documentary. They will have a second film crew at Bosque, to document the student’s participation in the mission. Hammer Down has selected Bosque School student Forrest Goodluck to helm up the 2unit crew.Hammer Down was founded in 2012 by filmmakers Anne Lower and Geoff Reeves, with a focus in the sci-fi, action and reality markets.“We consider ourselves fortunate to have Forrest on board to film Bosque’s participation in the experiment,”says Reeves. “We were committed to bringing young people in to assist will all facets of this production. Having Forrest join the team makes for a perfect assembly.”Goodluck’s short film, “Sun Kink” was recently honored at the Native Cinema Showcase, as part of the Santa Fe Indian Market.Also joining Hammer Down for the production is cinematographer Philip Lewis. Dr. Lewis is a professor of film at New Mexico State University, and will be joined by a student crew from his campus.“We hope to prove the concept that our proprietary experiment package will provide low cost voice and data communications for the pilots and passengers on suborbital launch vehicles (like Virgin Galactic),” says Barnett. “We want to provide them with Wi-Fi in their spacecraft, so they can communicate using their smart phones, as if they were in any Wi-Fi hotspot. The passengers will be able to send Instagram, Facebook, Tweets, and call their friends and loved ones from space.”The rocket launch is scheduled for Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at approximately 7 a.m. Mountain Time. People can join the students in following the experiment from launch to payload recovery by following the hashtagon Twitter.Satwest is a satellite communications and aerospace company founded in 1999. Our vision has been clear from the beginning: Provide access to the most advanced satellite and space technology to help our world class customer base solve communications problems and make new discoveries. Satwest is a recognized leader in the development of the emerging commercial, suborbital spaceflight industry. Satwest’s professional services include mission planning, production and management, payload development and integration services, and spaceflight access services enabling companies, universities and government agencies to fly their commercial and scientific payloads onboard suborbital launch vehicles.