Coming Down

Video frame of my rocket returning to Earth, with fellow rocketeers and their cars scattered around.

Erik and I built identical Estes Oracle rockets and launched them at the same time on D12-5 motors. Each rocket has a video camera inside the nose cone, which reflects off a 45-degree mirror to look down the shaft of the rocket (i.e., it sees the launch pad and then the receding ground during the launch). Since it was a drag race, each rocket could see the other one’s smoke trail as well.

I posted the video from my rocket-camera on Revver so you can see what this looks like. Near the beginning of the movie, you can see Erik’s rocket streaking off to the right.