Saturday, July 20, 2019

More about Tuesday...

A friend of mine presented me with one of the rockets used in the 5000 rocket world record attempt on Tuesday - it's the Space Camp rocket, Pathfinder, with special stickers to commemorate the occasion and the sponsors. Pathfinder is BT-20 based, with a red plastic fin can and blue nose cone; this variant not only has the special stickers but the parachute has been replaced by a too-small, 6" long mylar streamer for recovery. It's so short as to be useless - they might as well have just gone with simple nose blow recovery. Anyway, this model has joined my collection, and I thought I'd share some close up pics of it.

A rocket used in the 5000 rocket
Guinness attempt (Click to enlarge).
Close up showing the Guinness decal (Click to enlarge).
Launch lug side of the rocket (Click to enlarge).
In the first image you will notice a coffee stirrer attached to the rocket. This prevented the rocket from twisting around and causing the nozzle to come off the electric match. Without this, there is a non-zero chance the motor would not ignite. Even with it, about 80 rockets (1.6%) failed to leave the pad. The image below shows the rear of one of those - note the scorch mark on the motor, showing the match ignited outside the nozzle.

Hind end of one of the rockets that did not leave the pad showing
the scorching left behind by the electric match (Photo by
Allen Owens - Click to enlarge).
Chuck captured and posted a video of the Saturn V and SLS flights at MSFC. You may hear some colorful language just after the Saturn launch; something stung Chuck on the wrist, and judging from the mark and swelling, it had to have hurt. Unlike me, Chuck doesn't get rattled by such things and he was pretty much back to normal after a few minutes and the application of some sting relief. I would have generated much more drama.


We have scheduled a launch for Sunday, so hopefully I'll get some more flying done then. Stay tuned!

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