USLI Recap

I must say, that was probably the most fun and exciting launch I have ever been to! All the rockets were so unique and high-powered. It's rather unfortunate we didn't get to stay for the entire thing, but what we were able to see was amazing.

Our own launch was not too bad. Everything recovered safely. Just having the rocket function properly was success enough. It tore off the pad and canted at a slight angle, thus only reaching an altitude of 3200 feet. The drogue and only the drogue came out at apogee. We then tracked the descent, and shouted for the payload to deploy. It was supposed to deploy at 2500 feet, but it did not. Finally, at 700 feet the main charge went off, and it popped out along with the main parachute. In 700 feet it was hard to tell if the CDV was doing its job, but it did land in the SE direction as programmed. The only catch is that it was 300m too far to the SE. However, it was closer to the mark than the rest of the rocket, which descended more rapidly than the payload. This suggests that the payload was at least trying to get back to the landing zone.

I can't stop grinning.

By the time we got home, we pretty much had our entire project for next year planned out.