Background: Booster

We had some discussion about the way to design the Interstage Coupler. Basically, a 4" tube runs inside the length of the coupler section and extends 6" beyond the upper frustum. This fiberglass reinforced extension slides inside a fiberglass sleeve in the tail end of the sustainer to connect the two halves of the rocket. It also anchors the smaller diameters of the two frustums and serves as the booster avionics bay. The Interstage Coupler section was later renamed the Flying Milk Jug of Death for reasons that become fairly obvious when you see pictures of it unpainted and by itself.

Rick used his CAD skills to create a mockup for himself.

The original plan called for Rick to assemble the entire booster and ship it to Phoenix. However, we got hit with several realities: First, we started to run into time constraints. It became obvious that we could potentially run out of the time needed to complete the booster and ship it to Phoenix in time for the launch on October 13th. The second reality came on September 11, 2001 and the days following. After the infamous events of that day, we became concerned about the ability to transport large packages could be severely curtailed. So Rick bundled up the Booster and Interstage Coupler assemblies without fins and mailed them overnight to Arizona. As it turned out we made the right decision - the overnight package took eight days and arrived at 6:15pm on October 9th.

Shown here is the booster assembly, less fins, standing next to its shipping container.

Brad then slotted the tube, attached the fins, and started wiring the external switch for the avionics bay. Mark arrived in Phoenix on Thursday and went straight to work on the final sanding and finishing. Rick joined us Friday afternoon. The completed booster and sustainer were mated up for the first time at about 9:00pm on October 12th. The final coat of paint was applied at about 1:30am Saturday morning, October 13th. The Monocote stripes and rail buttons went on about 6:00am.