Spyder Rocket’s First Hypersonic Flight

August 1, 2025

UP Aerospace
Denver, CO
www.upaerospace.com

UP Aerospace has achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of its high-performance Spyder rocket. The maiden flight took place at Launch Complex 36, in White Sands, New Mexico, marking a new era in hypersonic mission capabilities. The mission reached the threshold of hypersonic speeds similar to the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket missions that have been operational for 20 years.

The mission was funded by the Stockpile Responsiveness Program (SRP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and was executed with the support of the Navy White Sands Detachment. The LANL payload test vehicle was successfully deployed in flight.

Spyder was specifically designed to support hypersonic missions reaching speeds of Mach 10. The launch vehicle is the result of an eight-year collaboration between UP Aerospace, Cesaroni Aerospace, NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since 2005, UP Aerospace and Cesaroni Aerospace have worked closely to develop cutting-edge solid rocket motors technologies including the Spyder booster and upper stage motors. Future developments of Spyder include the maximum performance booster motor and multi upper stage Spyder variants capable of achieving altitude’s approaching 300 km to support a wide variety of hypersonic mission objectives.

UP Aerospace has been providing launch services supporting a variety of customers including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and LANL, and began developing Spyder technologies under the NASA “Tipping Point” contract awarded in 2017. The Spyder rocket was developed to provide enhanced mass lifting and speed performance capabilities to support thermal protection system development, re-entry capsule stability and control evaluations, and high speed suborbital flight testing capabilities at a greatly reduced time and cost.

“The successful launch of Spyder-1 sets the stage for the next mission, which will integrate guidance and control systems into the Spyder-2 vehicle. We are excited for its upcoming launch, scheduled for early 2026,” said Jerry Larson, President and CEO of UP Aerospace.

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