|
This is the view looking down on the launch pad from the payload section of the launch vehicle. The airframe and fins are at the very top of the frame. Also seen is the red toolbox that hold the launch battery and relay system, and the spool I used to wind up cable.
|
|
The camera captures the first flames from the I161 White Lightning motor. At the bottom of each frame is a slice of the camera view not reflected by the mirror. I'll have to fix this before the next flight.
|
|
|
Smoke and flame obscure the pad
|
|
|
The Evil Dr. Manchu's Avenging Projectile of Doom lifts off. To the left is the adjacent pad.
|
|
|
The only picture where the split screen (bottom) is more than just annoying. From the left you can see people standing, the club's equipment trailer, the canopy that the registrar and RSO used, and another bystander.
|
|
|
The shadow from the column of smoke. The adjacent pad is still visible, now seen just to the right of the base of the rocket. If it isn't already obvious to you, the rocket is spinning.
|
|
|
The closest view of the launch range. I've labeled all the objects as best I can. This was made a little difficult because that the mirror flips everything around.
|
|
|
TEDMAPOD is still climbing, and below is the launch area. The pad and the shadow from the smoke column are at the top of the frame.
|
|
|
TEDMAPOD veers upwind, and the camera points toward the east to record a view of the Estrella mountains.
|
|
|
Ejection at apogee. Visible is the yellow parachute, still packed, and cellulose ejection wadding being spewed against the backdrop of the brilliant morning sun.
|
|
|
The deployed drogue parachute is just visible inside the corona of the morning sun. The black dot near the center of the photo is the sun itself.
|
|
|
A beautiful photo of the deployed drogue parachute. There are three dark dots silhouetted against the yellow; two are tangles in the shock cord. The third is the aft section of the rocket, about to plow into the chute and smash into the payload section.
When the parachute deploys, it stops the forward section dead in space; unfortunatly, the aft section was still flying at full velocity, and because the shock cord is shortened by tangles, the parachute and the two sections are on a collision course. The impact is heard unmistakably on the video just after this frame displays.
|
|
|
I'm not entirely sure what this is. It is either dangling shock cord or the wire to the drogue ejection charge. The mountains to the south of the launch area are visible in the distance.
|
|
|
Patchwork landscape. If I hadn't turned the photo 90 degrees you would be turning your head sideways right now. You can also see shock cord and a corner of the deflated drogue chute.
|
|
|
The main parachute is inflated after the collision, and the camera points toward the ground; I suspect that the two sections collided with enough force that the forward tube collapsed and ejected the main (like squeezing a Pringles can to make the lid pop off. Good thing, because the altimeter got knocked offline and stops beeping after the two sections hit.
The tangled drogue chute and aft section are also visible. The aft section is at the very top of the frame.
|
|
|
There is the sound of another collision at the 40 second point of the edited video. This frame showing the drogue still uninflated is seen just after the sound of the second collision, so I suspect the two sections bump together in the sky, perhaps deflating the drogue a second time.
|
|
|
The drogue chute is also reinflated at the time this frame is taken, but not visible in the video. It is holding the aft section off to the side of the camera. You can see the two tangles in the shock cord.
|
|
|
The drogue chute drifts against the payload section and is visible to the camera momentarily.
|
|
|
A bird's eye view of the flight line. A light day for the Superstition Spacemodeling Society because of the heat (113 degrees) and because all the rocket die-hards are at LDRS.
|
|