Camping onsite at the VLA (for Hybrid and 2-stage teams ONLY)

After several years of patient prodding, Spaceport America has agreed to allow Hybrid and 2-Stage teams to camp at the VLA.  Hybrids and 2-Stagers require significant prep time at the Pad areas. Camping is the safest way to allow this so the team can get a very early morning jump start on their launch prep so they can launch earlier in the day.

Camping is allowed with the following requirements:

  1. Only 6 team members per team are allowed to camp
  2. Camping is only permitted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. 
  3. Once your project has flown, you can no longer camp onsite
  4. Your team will be assigned a camping pad site near the ESRA Leaders
  5. There will be no open fires, no charcoal.  Propane grills are allowed
  6. Once the sun sets, all team members should be at the camp site, quietly working on their project, or resting. Security will likely not allow you to return to the campsite after 9pm. 
  7. Misbehavior, making poor choices, disrupting others, etc. will get your team removed and possibly all student teams. 
  8. Your team must send an email to with the listing of members who will be camping