Pictures from JP Aerospace's DSS3/Oklahoma flight

Community Recognition

The purpose of this page is to recognize the community who welcomed us for the opening of the Oklahoma Spaceport. Where possible, I have made links to the businesses and organizations where I could find them, or look them up on Yahoo's yellow pages. Any omissions are unintentional - please notify me so I can correct them. (I was not there for everything that happenned so I'm starting this list with what I'm aware of.)

If it seems like I'm advertising for some of them, yup, you're right. That's an acceptable way to say "thank you" to someone who helped you.

The people of Burns Flat
Each of our members has a different story of their first meeting with Burns Flat residents. But then again they're all the same story - people showing their welcome, making us glad to be there. On more than one occasion we heard of tears welling up in their eyes when they heard that we had arrived. For 34 years since the Air Force base was closed, the people of Burns Flat had been told of one plan after another to bring anything back to the town. We thought we were just doing what we said we would. But to the residents, we were the first who actually came. They showed their welcome and appreciation with such strong emotion that it deeply affected all of us. The words "thank you" don't say enough but let's start with them anyway. We'll be happy to spread the word in the aerospace industry about the welcome we received in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. (See also another link about Burns Flat at SWODA.)
Bill Khourie
Bill is with the Spaceport Authority and previously an airport official. He was there making sure everything we needed was provided. When the transponder didn't arrive from the company that was loaning it, he got the one out of his airplane. The list goes on and on - we were soon including Bill like a member of the JPA team because he was there for us all the time.
Burns Flat Fire Dept
The firefighters at the Clinton-Sherman Airpark were among the first to welcome JP and Norm when they arrived with the trailer. From the questions they asked, they had obviously been studying JP Aerospace's web site. :-) They loaned us all the tables we used at the hangar, as soon as they were done with them at a class Thursday evening. They were very helpful in probably more ways than I'm aware of. They were also participants who helped add some special meaning to the first flight from the spaceport - they provided PongSats (a ping-pong ball as a high-altitude payload container) with pins from their participation in the rescue efforts at the Murrah Federal Building disaster. We flew their payload in the PongSat box to the edge of space at 100,000' on Away 14 on Saturday and returned it to them after the package was recovered later that morning. They also offered everyone on our team a tour of the fire station - I regret that I didn't have spare time to get the tour but I hope some of our people got a chance to take up their offer.
D&S Hardware, Burns Flat
I didn't have the privilege to visit the hardware store. But from what I heard from our team members who did, the owner wouldn't let us pay for anything - he donated the little things and loaned the big ones. And he offered to open the store in the middle of the night if we needed anything. Fortunately, I was present to watch on Sunday when JP Aerospace officially gave him the frame from Saturday's Away 14 flight. It was the inaugural flight from the spaceport and carried the Oklahoma University instruments to 100,000 feet. I was one of the tracking & recovery team who tracked it in flight, found it near Spring Creek OK and brought it back. That was also the same frame that flew on a test flight to 72,000 feet in California two weeks earlier from Lake Berryessa to the foothills northeast of Marysville. (In that case, we commanded the on-board computer to blow the balloon so that it wouldn't cross the Sierra Nevada mountains.) Both of its flights were about 80 miles. I think this is a very appropriate way to say "thank you". We believe he intended to hang it on display in his store where Burns Flat residents can see it.
CS Aviation, Burns Flat
CS Aviation loaned the propane heaters which kept us from freezing in the hangar and kept us comfortable and warm in the office area. Also, Jeff from CS Aviation showed me the way to Kilhoffer Propane in Canute.
Rudy's Superette, Burns Flat (restaurant, convenience store and gas station)
Rudy's staff were so enthusiastic any time any of our team visited. They put the "Lift off special" on the marquee in front of the store and on signs on every table. They helped promote our flight like so many residents of Burns Flat. I hope they did great business with the crowds on the Saturday morning. They made T-shirts for the event which said...
front back
Dark Sky Station
Spacecraft Launch
Burns Flat Spaceport
2002 		We visited
Rudy's
These were on sale to the public but they gave them to us free. We thought it was fun what they were instructed to write for their accountant to explain the free items, just two words: "space crew". On Sunday the staff started asking us to autograph their own T-shirts.
Kilhoffer Propane, Canute
Thanks again to Kilhoffer Propane in the nearby town of Canute for giving us residential rates on the propane for our heaters.
McKinsey-Ballard Motors (Ford/Chrysler dealer), Clinton
McKinsey-Ballard loaned two of their rental cars for us to shuttle our people back and forth to the Oklahoma City airport and between Clinton and the spaceport.
City of Clinton
Knowing that people were making out-of-pocket expenses, the City of Clinton paid for two motel nights per room at the Ramada Inn to help defray our costs. I heard that this was arranged by the mayor.
These are the people whom I saw helping us, from the point of view of a member of the team. I'm certain there were others. Don't take offense at any omission - just let me know about it.

A separate page was also made to recognize the JP Aerospace team members who volunteered their time for this trip.

More links about the Oklahoma Spaceport and vicinity:

Amateur Radio clubs that do high-altitude balloon launches in or near Oklahoma:

Other news links:

Back to Ian's Pictures of DSS3

Copyright (c) 2002 Ian Kluft. All opinions on this page are my own. For official info from JP Aerospace please see jpaerospace.com.