I have been anticipating this launch for over a year.
Dick Matthews’ custom machined design was a work of beauty. Each of the three J-motor boosters has a retention screw that is severed by a computer-initiated pyro charge that shoots a cylindrical knife down the inside of the rocket. The boosters fall away as the computer ignites the central motor in flight. It could have been great.
Alas, the partial lighting of only one of three boosters doomed the flight, as the asymmetrical thrust sent the rocket into spastic gyrations right in front of us. One of the computers sensed the lack of vertical climb as the apogee event, and deployed the chute while the motor was still burning.
From the frame-by-frame analysis below, it looks like the booster severing mechanism did the trick. I hope to see Dick run with this one again next year!
A launch video medley with other misplaced BALLS. (the first slow-mo collapse was Tim Covey UMERG O-hybrid motor)
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