BRUNSWICK and LIMESTONE, Maine — A team of scientists including a graduate of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics will launch a prototype rocket from the former Loring Air Force Base in mid-November.
Seth Lockman, a 2011 MSSM graduate, is part of the team from bluShift Aerospace of Brunswick who will launch “Stardust,” a 20-foot tall, 14-inch diameter prototype rocket, from the Loring Commerce Centre.
The launch, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28, has been postponed to mid-November. The organization in charge of the launch said that the team needs more time to conduct critical tests, and that an official date will be announced soon.
“We’re waiting on the go-ahead from the engineering team,” Lockman said. “We had some shipping delays that led to a domino effect. To do things right, we just need a little more time.”
The rocket will have a 540-pound liftoff mass and reach 4,000 feet. The purpose of the launch is to show the bio-derived, carbon-neutral rocket fuel in flight, and to demonstrate commercial demand for suborbital launches by carrying commercial payloads.
Lockman said one benefit of the non-toxic fuel is that it could be ingested without causing notable harm. He said he believes Maine could be an affordable alternative to existing suborbital and orbital launch sites for small rockets, and noted the growth pipeline company Frost & Sullivan projects small-satellite launch service revenues will pass $69 billion by 2030.
Lockman received a bachelor’s degree in psychology summa cum laude from the University of Maine in 2015, and said he enjoyed the psychology program because it has “a great focus on statistics, data sampling and skeptical interpretation of data.”
After college, he volunteered at Southworth Planetarium at the University of Southern Maine under the tutelage of Edward Gleason, planetarium manager.
While there, Lockman founded a radio program, “Radio Astronomy,” in collaboration with WMPG in Portland. The program, now called “Scientifically Speaking,” brought astronomy to the general public and included field recordings from events, live shows, as well as guest interviews with industry experts.
One such interview was with Sascha Deri, Founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace Inc. in Brunswick. That connection led to Lockman’s employment with the company in October of 2018.
