Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/11
180 mm
1/2,500
640

Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly of the Nest rocket.

I have honed a rocketry reflex for flinch photography. Erik’s M2080 motor over-pressured and sheared off the entire top of my aluminum case in the blink of an eye. Video and photo essay below, including the GoPros you see embedded in the mayhem…

9 responses to “KaBoom!”

  1. walking to the far away pad, through the lush alfalfa
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    Our motto: Aim for the sky and try not to miss
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    The video team, that captured the video
    photo-5

    I have to say I understand the agony in the voiceover… It reminds me of the opening video to the Olympics, with the thrill of victory and… dooooooooh…..

    This is pretty cool. You can see individual o-rings (top) and motor grains, and all the elements of careful assembly unraveled (.26 seconds after the main shot above)
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    Each sparky grain, infused with titanium sponge, continues to burn, but slowly at low pressure
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    Erik and I were wearing our Nest t-shirts, and thinking this would have been the perfect testing ground for their new smoke detector. Oh boy, would it!

    Scorched insulating liner from the motor
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    And the remains of my loaner motor case (already replaced – thanks!) and fire extinguisher…
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  2. Amazing! Great shots Steve…but sad day. The good news is that there is always another day to fly again. I’ve already begun the rebuild =0

  3. Great documentation of this "Boom goes the dynamite" episode! Sorry for your loss 😉

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