3,2,1...

This last semester I took 2 rocketry classes mostly for fun. I took a basic rocketry class which taught the fundamentals of rocketry and required me to assemble a small rocket from a kit. This little black rocket is pictured below.


I also took an advanced rocketry class that was a lot of fun. For this project I teamed up with one of my friends and classmates, Johnny Hughes, to design and construct the rocket. First we designed the rocket on a program called SpaceCAD. Then we custom ordered the parts and had them shipped to us. After some testing and construction we were ready to launch our rockets. Below is Johnny and I and the two rockets that I launched.


The launch went relatively well. You will see the rocket’s booster stage ignite first on the launch pad. Shortly after that before the booster stage burns out, it ignites the main stage which carries the rocket to its highest point (apogee). The rocket was designed to deploy a minature parachute called a “drogue” chute at apogee (2500 feet). When this small chute is deployed it arms an internal timer which 30 seconds later fires a charge deploying the main chute at a hopeful 600 feet. While during the launch the timer never succesfully armed and the main chute did not deploy, our rocket did make it back to Earth with its passenger egg safe earning us an A. Below is the video of our launch.