Explorer Post 1010
Lockheed Martin Exploring Program
Launch November 22, 2008
 
We travelled to our Maryland launch site on a late November Saturday.  It was very cold and wind over 10mph.  This launch was postponed from November 15 due to weather.  With this launch, we hoped to develop launch experience for the new members by using old rockets and the altimeters.  We also planned to test a 3 inch diameter Big Daddy rocket and egg protection.  Things didn't work out quite as well as we planned.

Our Big Daddy crashed into the ice covered pond.  Weather cocking kept it from reaching a decent height, and the ejection delay was too long (should have used an E9-4).  Recovery was difficult and we lost the nose cone, so we don't know how the egg protection worked.  We launched a Patriot so we would have something to recover.

Lessons

  • Always launch with a real egg.
  • Weather cocking is a big issue and we need to angle the launch tower.
  • Estes E9 black powder motors should not be used on a windy day.
  • We watched some other TARC teams with nice launches. (video)
  • We saw some interesting launch towers.

Launches

Rocket Engine Cargo Chute Weight Results
Big Daddy E9-6 egg and altimeter weight 18" X about 370g  The rocket cocked into the wind soon after launch, it landed in the center of the pond.
Patriot
(video)
C6-5 no cargo 12" about 100g  Nice launch and recovery

Pictures

 Loading up
Long Reach HS launch tower 
Another launch tower 
 Close up of launch tower
 

Last March 15, we lost our black rocket booster stage in a very tall tree - about 70 ft in the air.  It's still up there with a $30 24mm reusable motor hardware.  How could we get it down?

Copyright 2008 Lockheed Martin Exploring Program
Updated: November 23, 2008