Rockets Magazine Recap

Enough about people; back to rockets.

I just finished the December issue of Rockets Magazine, where some of my creative commons photos earned a nice byline.

I liked the enthusiastic summary of the rocket drag race I had with Erik and the post-mortem on the peculiar crater created by our Mavericks Q-P Doll project (I was wondering why there was so little shrapnel scatter):

“at the count of zero, the 80 grams of thermite brought the Q motor to life immediately, and 500 pounds of rocket shot off the pad like it weighed nothing at all. The flame was enormous, trailing 30 feet behind the rocket. [flight details]… the P motor never lit… The booster section with an unfired P motor with potentially active and functioning head-end ignition was diving toward the playa at breakneck speeds. The plume of dust could be seen for miles when the booster impacted. What wasn’t known, due to the distance, is that somehow the 35 grams of thermite had fired and lit the propellant at impact. The P motor must have been at least 20 to 30 feet underground at this point, and there was nowhere for the exhaust thrust to go. The motor instantaneously over-pressurized at CATOed while underground, leaving a 12-foor-wide crater in the Playa.”

I’ll post a photo of the crater below. Also, here’s an energetic video report on the flight…

I also liked the shout out to “some late night launching that included a spectacular J-motor CATO in a rocket launched by Steve Jurvetson. But even Steve’s CATO couldn’t match the haunting sounds of a late-night concert by Bob Dylan violinist Scarlet Riviera.”

And lastly, “Steve Jurvetson was flying a Nuclear Sledgehammer on an M1315 for his Level Three certification attempt. This kit was serial number 001 in the production run. Steve was involved in design consultations of this rocket, and he wanted to have the first one for himself. Being able to certify Level Three at a Research Launch is one of the positive steps that the Tripoli Board has enacted in the last year. The black rocket, highlighted with red pin striping, took to the sky like a seasoned Level Three veteran. The rocket rose steadily on the trail of white fire and smoke. There was a slight arc that sent the rocket down range. The whole flight was perfectly silhouetted against the dissipating high, white clouds, and the perfect apogee deployment of the of the main signaled that another Level Three flier had been added to that elite club.”