Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly

Pop!

I did not get a chance to talk with the owner of this rocket for a post-mortem. It looks like a flaming grain shot out the back, and the rocket skewed off-angle right off the pad. I would guess that it’s an aft motor closure failure. From the next frames, it seems that much of the propellant is still in the rocket, but burning without thrust (which would make sense if the nozzle had popped off the rear).

I was shooting on motor-drive with 1/3 second intervals. The next four photos show the sequence of unfortunate events. (Next)