THE KENTUCKY RE-ENTRY UNIVERSAL PAYLOAD SYSTEM (KRUPS) IS A LOW COST RE-ENTRY VEHICLE DEVELOPED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY. KRUPS AIMS AT ADVANCING AEROTHERMODYNAMIC PHYSICS WHILE SERVING AS A UNIVERSAL PAYLOAD SYSTEM FOR UPPER ATMOSPHERIC AND MICRO-GRAVITY EXPERIMENTS. THE DESIGN OF KRUPS HAS BEEN ONGOING FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS STARTING FROM CONCEPTUAL DESIGN TO BASELINE QUALI_CATIONS. OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS NASA HAS STARTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL OF SMALL CAPSULES OF VARIOUS SIZES FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES. FOR INSTANCE THE REBR CAPSULE (AEROSPACE CORP./NASA AMES) WAS DESIGNED TO RECORD RE-ENTRY BREAKUP PATTERNS FOR LARGE ORBITAL DEBRIS ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE. REBR EW ON SEVERAL MISSIONS WITH SUCCESSFUL RESULTS ON THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THEM. BUILDING ON THAT THE MARAIA CAPSULE (NASA JSC) WAS DESIGNED WITH THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING A QUICK PAYLOAD RETURN OPTION FOR THE ISS. AT THE SAME TIME BOTH THE RED-DATA (TVA/NASA JSC) AND THE SPRITES CAPSULE (NASA AMES) WERE INTENDED TO TEST HEAT SHIELD MATERIALS IN IGHT CONDITIONS. THE KRUPS CAPSULE WAS INSPIRED BY THESE DESIGNED FRAMING THE PROJECT THROUGH STUDENT RESEARCH EXPERIENCE. KRUPS UNDERWENT SEVERAL CRITICAL SYSTEM VALIDATIONS IN RECENT YEARS CULMINATING IN TWO SOUNDING ROCKET IGHTS_E APART FROM THE SUCCESSFUL REBR IGHTS ALL THE CAPSULES DESCRIBED HERE INCLUDING KRUPS HAD ONE COMMON FAILURE POINT: THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM. THE CURRENT WORK AIMS AT DIRECTLY ADDRESSING THIS ISSUE BY PERFORMING AN ADDITIONAL SOUNDING ROCKET IGHT THAT WILL DIRECTLY TARGET AND VALIDATE THIS SUB-SYSTEM. FOLLOWING THIS IGHT THE KRUPS CAPSULE WILL HAVE ITS TRL RAISED TO 6 THUS PAVING THE WAY FOR AN UPCOMING IGHT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (NASA AWARD 80NSSC19M0014 PI: A. MARTIN). FOR ITS CURRENT INCARNATION KRUPS IS DESIGNED AS A TEST-BED FOR TPS. THIS SPECI_C APPLICATION WAS CHOSEN SO THAT IT COULD DIRECTLY SUPPORT NASA FUNDED ENTRY SYSTEM MODELING TOOLS CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY (UK) MORE SPECI_CALLY THE AWARDED NASA ESI GRANT (NASA AWARD NNX16AD18G PI: A. MARTIN) THAT AIMS AT UNDERSTANDING THE INSTRUMENTED THERMAL RESPONSE OF EFT-1.