It was one small step for man but one giant leap for the Bluegrass State over the weekend.

Kentucky made state history on Saturday, March 27th by launching its first space craft. The Frontier 1 was launched from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and climbed to just over 167 miles in altitude with the help of a Terrier-Improved Malamute NASA rocket. Telemetry indicates the Frontier 1 payload successfully left the atmosphere 72 seconds after it was launched. It later fell back to earth after fulfilling its mission objectives, and burned up upon reentry.

According to the state, it marks the first time Kentucky has ever developed, built and successfully inserted a free-flying spacecraft into space.

“This exciting announcement shows that Kentucky is among the elite in innovation and scientific advancement,” said Gov. Steve Beshear in a news release. “This unique partnership among Kentucky’s higher education institutions, state government and private industry shows that the Commonwealth is a bastion of high-tech, 21st century learning, as well as limitless economic opportunity.”

Kentucky Space is a nonprofit company that designs and develops educational, research and development and entrepreneurial space platforms. It is made up of students and faculty members at the University of Kentucky, Morehead State University, the University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, Murray State University, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System as well as people from the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium and Belcan.

The goal of Frontier 1 was to test hardware and software that will eventually be flown into space on board KentuckySat 1. KySat 1 is an orbiting satellite that Kentucky Space plans to launch in November 2010. It will include a camera that will transmit pictures back to the Blue Grass state.

KySat 1 will be launched on board NASA’s Taurus XL rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on November 22nd, 2010.

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