UP Aerospace Launch

The best footage I've ever seen from a small (ish) solid fueled rocket.

More info can be found on UP aerospace's site here.

Launch Day

I had a lot of fun at the launch. The new motor performed really well . The flight went well and the chute was deployed at apogee. Unfortunately the parachute separated from the rocket and it came in ballistic. The good news is that most of the motor survived and may give some clue as to what caused the recovery failure...more on that later. I don't think many of the AIAA members had ever seen a "sugar" motor before and I think a lot of them were surprised and impressed.

Many of the competing teams seemed to have a tough time of it with several launch pad mishaps and a few in flight failures. By the afternoon though there had been some nicely executed flights. Overall it was a good day and it was pretty cool to see so many people participating. There are a handful of other photos here.

Old Photos

This is a rocket I flew back in March of 2004. My friend Peter and I got a lot of ribbing from the guys as the vehicle was constructed almost entirely from sewer pipe. The motor utilized an unrestricted burning grain, which basically means that it lept off the ground like a bat out of hell. That's me holding a propellant segment, Peter with the rocket, leaving the ground with a bit of an arc, straightening out, and the landing site. Fun Day!

Great Weekend!

I attended the RRS launch this weekend. It was a great launch and I had tons of fun. Rick Maschek and I fired a motor that was part of ongoing testing for the Sugar Shot to Space project. There were at least 12-13 small Zn/S rockets flown, a 4000lb thrust LOX/kerosene static test, and a variety of other flights and tests.