Updates

Complete Perseverance-1 Mishap Investigation

The Perseverance-1 Mission is the second launch in this program, Trying to glide a paper airplane down from ~500 Feet at the apogee of the rocket. This Mission featured Booster 3, and Perseverance. There were 2 Main Issues that occurred from the flight, First was the ship falling off and Second was the Loss of control during the ascent burn.

The Loss of control was previously thought to be the aerodynamic forces acting on the rocket during ascent, but after some discussions, We have determined that a likely failure point was the Center of Pressure and Center of Gravity were not aligned as they should have been, and aerodynamics could have played the role in the flip. We have decided that we could add fin extensions to the bottom of B3 for the next flight, to change the CP and CG

The ship falling off was because of the loss of control and that will not need to be changed ahead of the next flight, as previously mentioned, it was likely caused by aerodynamics of the flipping that made the ship prematurely separate. 

We have came up with 2 Corrective actions for the next flight of this rocket. 

1. Even out the CP and CG on the vehicle prior to launch.

2. Add Fin extensions on the bottom of B3 

Initial Findings in the

Perseverance-1 Mishap investigation

The Perseverance-1 Mission was the Second launch in this program. The first, B1/S. Endeavor failure in 2023. Since then, 6 corrective actions had been taken to get to the Perseverance-1 mission. Major one was Changing the grip from the booster and ship 

There were 2 Main failures that happened. First, The ship fell off the booster again and Second was the booster spinning and achieving a premature landing and "soft" touchdown.

The spinning that happened could have been caused by: Fins not straight, Engine mount failure, and Off-nominal Aerodynamic forces. The fins are pretty straight and are not damaged. The Engine mount was recovered in good condition. The belief is that the forces of the plane sitting on top of the booster negatively acted on the vehicle that caused the spin. 

The ship falling off the booster was likely caused by the spinning of the vehicle and the uneven forces made the ship prematurely separate. 

As with any flight like this, we took the necessary precautions making sure that the surrounding area was safe and no injuries have occurred because of the anomaly. Since the cause didn't originate with the booster, the S5-2 Mission is not held up by this investigation, and B5-1 Mission later this year is also not held up.

Changes made to Water Supression System ahead of the S5-2 Mission.

The launch pad has supported 8 launches, and at the beginning, the launch pad was scared following a static fire of a 3d printed engine section, and the launch of Booster 2. During Booster 3's first flight, we tested pouring water in the launch pad prior to the launch. This worked ok, but was not a viable option because eventually with larger vehicles, we will need a more powerful launch system. 

The plan is to cut a hole in the back of the flame trench for a hose, that will connect to a water bottle that will be on the back of the pad. There will be a valve that we will open before the launch. This will spill water into the flame trench and protect it from the engine. During the previous launches, we poured some water into the trench prior to launch, that helped, but the water got thrown out leaving the flame trench vulnerable. this will help remove that problem.

Changes made after B2 and B1/SE mishaps.

It took a while, but I will share the results of the Mishap report of the Booster 2 launch failure and B1/S. Endeavor launch failure back in 2023. 

On the Booster 2 failure, The launch pad ended up with a lot of char on it post launch. This was mitigated by pouring water on the pad before the launch to mitigate it. The rocket suffered a parachute failure that ended in a failed recovery of the vehicle. We were able to get it, but ended up having suffered too much damage and couldn't be repaired. We fixed this by removing a tab in the middle of the rocket that was caused by stacking the tubes. Removing this lead to the success of the S5-1 Mission earlier today. This could not be implemented before Booster 3's test flight. The vehicle was saved by the positioning of the parachute in the top of the rocket. These were implemented on Booster 1's launch but other reason's caused that to fail.

On Booster 1's fail, The top, Ship Endeavor, fell off earlier than expected. This was caused due to the clamps not having enough strength to be able to stay on, and the vehicle fell apart. In flight, The Launch Lug, that is used to keep the rocket on the guide rod, fell off. We fixed this by having a better connection with it and the rocket. The rocket also started spinning when it went up. 2 things could have caused this. One is the fins, being old and have been slightly disfomed, or the engine mount being at a small angle. Again, the parachtue failed to deploy on the rocket. This was likely caused by no nosecone and the chute being pushed into the rocket deeper. For next time, we will change the connection point on the rocket if we decide to do this again.

SpaceTech's First Mystery Payload...

In the Past 2 years, SpaceTech has become more than just a "Startup" Model rocket company. From our first launch in July of 2023, SpaceTech has been working on launching bigger and bigger rockets, and eventually landing or catching a rocket. That is still a few years away, but will be happening soon. But on the B3-5 Mission, We will have a mystery payload onboard. This Payload will ride on top of the parachute and be released with it. Their will not be a parachute on this payload and we will try to recover it after launch, but it will not be dangerous in freefall. As is any launch, This is an experimental payload for this test. The launch is set for Sunday, February 2nd and B3 is ready for launch.

SpaceTech to attempt a propulsive Landing for Model Rockets!

During this last year, SpaceTech proved that they can successfully launch a model rocket and recover the vehicle using a parachute. In 2023, SpaceTech launched 3 rockets, Booster 1, 2 and 3. Only Booster 3 was successful. In 2024, we had 3 successful launches, with another one launching tomorrow. Booster 3 has been a great Test-bed rocket to get used to flying the rocket. Since it's first launch on October 8th, 2023, it has flown 3 more times since then and is set to fly tomorrow as of the writing of this article. 

We will be launching the Booster 5 and Second stage 5 will be launching next year, by themselves and integrated. But we have a new project that we are going to be working on this winter. We will be working on a rocket that can have a propulsive landing. This project will launch for the first time No Earlier than, May of 2025 and I will attempt live streaming the launches and landings and doing a full rundown on my Youtube channel, youtube.com/@loganturkowski for previous launches. If landing works, We might make a launch tower with Chopsticks to catch the rocket.

We will need to upgrade the launch pad, as B3-5 will no longer be testing the water deleuge system, and could happen early next year (March at earliest). We cannot share anymore details about the rocket yet, but it will be designed, built, and tested starting in May 2025.