The fiberglass section of the extended Telstar Logistics LOC IV rocket holds Fredrick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management and Dilbert’s Pointy-Haired Boss, provided by a management conference that needed to blow them up.
I put a little extra gunpowder to singe the Boss, but alas, it popped the nose cone off so powerfully that the shock cord ripped in half (I don’t know how I forgot to plan for that… must have been bad process control). So the parachute left with the nose cone, and the heavy rocket returned ballistic as a big lawn dart.
• Launch video through “separation” and “coming in hot”
Amazingly, the G-Wiz LCX computer survived, beeping out the altitude reached. Almost everything else was destroyed by the G-forces of impact. All epoxy joints ripped apart, metal bolts ripped through wood bulkhead plate, even the Duracell battery deformed, but kept on ticking. G-Wiz makes one tough computer!
The Animal Motor Works motor also looks like it survived, and of course, the nose cone and parachute drifted softly back down wind.
• Remains of the Day “recovery” video
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