Back to News
03/06/07 - TLA Feb. 3rd Launch Info and General Update
The TLA launch on February 3rd (near San Diego) went over with mixed results. I'm calling it a partial success (as opposed to partial failure). A bit of a semantic error on the flight electronics lead to a reverse on the deployment. The plan was for the nosecone to pop off at apogee, the drogue to unravel and the main parachute to hang behind snuggly wrapped in a kevlar bag secured by a Gravity Tether charged release locking mechanism which would activate at 2,500 feet and from them on the rocket would cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war ... and by dogs of war I mean of course the main parachute. This order was reversed because of a misprint on the electronics bay (main meaning main parachute and not main deployment). Three of us are responsible: Thomas, Jacob, and myself; all senior members with the majority of the experience in launching rockets between the three of us. It's an honest mistake that we'll fix with better use of checklists next time.
Both the drogue and the parachute had shred at 2,500 feet and the rocket took a hard landing, though nothing expensive was damaged, so TLA will live again: TLA part DEUX. And in Daedalus fashion, the "deux" does in fact stand for something other than "two" in Francais: Don't Embarass Us Xgain. Yeah, only so many words that start with X, so I made up one instead. All that is needed is some parachutes and fiberglass. We ripped ours in half length wise, which is impressive to any rocketeer to see a kevlar cord do to that a fiberglass rocket. Thankfully, our aluminum rod saved everything else, so the repairs won't be costly at all, $300 or so at Giant Leap Rocketry.
More depressing than anything though, was our faulty ignitor which resulted in a misfire, or more appropriately, a "hangfire", where the rocket sits there and doesn't launch for a while after the ignitor has been ignited. What happened, in short, was that the ignitor sort of exploded up in the very top of the rocket motor and the burnt pieces fell and instead ignited the bottom grains instead of the top grains first. This caused a pressure gradient that the motor could not overcome for a while, and resulted in an incomplete ignition. Basically, it sat there for 15 seconds or so until it finally did ignite fully, taking off only after burning a good sum or propellant. Finally tally: approx. 9,500 ft and just under Mach. We were planning on 15 or 16kft and speeds in excess of Mach 1.3.
.
However, our real-time telemetry and data transmission did work, giving us clues as to what happened and where it might be found. But it wasn't until a friendly quadder nearly ran over it and gave us the GPS coordinates so that we could recover the rocket. All in all, I deem it a partial success. Lots learned on this one, hopefully our next launch of TLA will reap greater awards...
Next on the never-ending to-do list: work on the competition rocket for the ESRA University rocket competition, held this year in Montana in late June. It's quite an undertaking to say the least: 8" composite airframe made from carbon and fiberglass woven fabric, carbon paneled fins, a deployable flying payload (well, we hope it flys at least...), and an experimental solid rocket M motor mixed by our members. Worse yet, we will have to come up with a name for it! We've received all the necessary parts for the rocket and the motor mixing and are in the process of getting the rocket test stand up and firing. Hopefully we'll have some results by the end of the month.
~ James Kendall Villarreal; Project Director