Posted on 12/28/2007 11:41:37 AM PST by cardinal4
Gusting winds swept away Artorius One after its successful second stage separation.
"We had a perfect, uninterrupted launch sequence, ignition was nominal as were the separation and chute deployment," said *****, an Artorius Aerospace engineer. "But we didnt count on wind gusts at altitude to be that high."
The separation was viewed visually as was chute deployment. Thats when a wind gust at about 400 ft took the parachuting re-entry vehicle far to the northwest of the Artorius Space Flight Center near [REDACTED]. At this time its wherabouts are unknown.
(Excerpt) Read more at artoriuscastus.blogspot.com ...
Is this a major launch vehicle program?
No, but Fred Thompson just got another vote and is now up to 43% on that blog, LOL!
Estes Rockets my boys got for Christmas. Im just having a little fun with it..
LOL, that poll hasnt moved much in the last week. But the only movement has been for Thompson..
Sure. Like getting your wife a new belt sander. :)
Well, I, er, picked them out.. But they were for the boys, really!
I had a Camrock, 35 years or so ago.
Loads of fun. Had a ‘D’ booster I made for it. It came with an engine mount for up to a ‘c’. I made another for use with a D engine. Great for 6 lanuches. Lost it on the sixth. Had a 1.5” piece fo film that had to be inserted in a large black bage before each launch. I wish I knew where the pictures were now.
Yeah, I was a geek. So?
When I was a kid, we got tired of losing rockets and started using the cardboard tubes the rocket engines came in. We cut fins out of tin and carved nosecones with sharp points out of building blocks.
They went higher and fell fairly close to the launch point since there was no parachute. It was dangerous though. We had to abandon our development program when one penetrated our next door neighbors car roof.
I guess Im still a geek; these rockets have altimeters ans airspeed indicators on them. Thats why I really want to find it ( I have a hunch its in a yard behind out house), it has all the data in it. Im hoping they will be home soon..
Yikes! My boys know what the engines consist of and what they can be used for, that why the engines and launch keys are locked in my safe..
In the late 60’s we got them through mail order. A heavy cardboard tube with four engines would show up in the mail box and we would launch! We also had bottle rocket wars using our sinle shot shotguns as launch tubes.
This was in Louisiana circa 1968. Can you imagine 10 to 12 year old kids running around with shotguns and the parents didn’t care?
The only real way to get in trouble was to leave the door open and “let all the airconditioning out”.
One guy launched a D motor in a PVC pipe down the hall of our dorm...right through the fire door and into the stairwell.
I had a similar problem with the three stage rocket Alderan’s Revenge.
As the second stage fired it veered toward the horizontal and streaked out of sight.
As a genuine rocket scientist who carefully made all the calculations and dimensional notations in accordance with the Estes manuals and designer texts, I was pretty certain the design was good. Alas it was not.
ping..
Before launching A-2 you might get an extra C engine and use masking tape to fasten it to a 15 inch or so piece of small dowel rod. If you tie bright streamers to the bottom of the rod you can follow its free fall path better also. It is a high flying bottle rocket and will leave a smoke trail for you to visually gauge wind directions and speed at altitude. </ tongue in cheek; I didn’t say that...
Can we do it again Dad, huh, huh?? LOL
I will always treasure my memories of the first launch I witnessed; grin.
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