The working end of Jeff Jakob’s big beauty.
Held together by 420 bolts. Amazing craftsmanship from the carbon composite fins to the inner piping. It takes 200 lbs of nitrous oxide + 28 lbs of HTPB. Just loading the nitrous takes 40 minutes.
It blew up into tiny bits at BALLS13, so the hydraulic lift and liquid-fuel-pumping pad had to be rebuilt, as well as a shiny new 23 foot tall rocket.
At BALLS16, it screamed up to Mach 3 and exploded (Jeff’s photos).
He made his fourth attempt at BALLS 17. Soon after liftoff, the motor flamed out to the side.
Last year, at BALLS 18, everything was set up in the cold, but the weather worsened, and the team had to pack it all up for that year. The heartbreak of Blue BALLS.
So they were back for the sixth attempt this weekend at BALLS 19….
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