XPRS
Flight video WMV
The
escape (video) tower break away
sequence
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Astronaut:
GI Joe
Motor:
AMW K1075 GG
Goals
-
Test
free fall system for the Capsule
-
Video
capture the flight from 3 cameras
-
Test
tower recovery system
Results
-
AMW
motor was fantastic and was prepared by Woody
of Woody's Pro-X Hardware (THANKS!)
-
We used a new launch rail that had a gimbal lock
(for pad rotation) we didn't know about. The lock wasn't tight and
subsequently the pad twisted 20 degrees on launch. This bent the
rail buttons and caused the rocket's ascent to
be way slower than needed to establish stability, so
once it cleared the tower it started a hard arc to the east.
-
The on-board camera's custom cable failed at the
last minute so there wasn't any cockpit footage recorded. (in the
video, all the cockpit footage was created pre and post flight).
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The
escape (video) tower was not designed to take the stress from an
angled ascent so it sheared off, taking along with it
the capsule's nose cap, parachute ejection charge and drogue chute.
Thankfully, the video gear and most of the tower was undamaged from
the incident.
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The (stable flying) rocket continued to rise in a
slow arc but was flying almost horizontal, at maybe 1000' off the
ground.
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The G-Wiz detected a point of apogee and
blew the capsule off. It free-fell as planned but couldn't deploy its
parachute due to the tower incident so the capsule impacted with the playa,
causing tons of structural damage. GI Joe and all on-board electronics
were undamaged. (Really a shame we didn’t have the on-board cockpit
camera working.)
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The parachute for the booster deployed properly
and the booster "stuck" the landing, ready to fly again -
except for the bent rail buttons. ("Stuck" means it was
standing up.)
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