Which craft do I model: Apollo 8, 9, 11, 13, or 15? Not so trivial a decision, if I really want to have a reasonably accurate model. The S-IC stages had retro rockets. All of these missions used 8, except for Apollo 15, which used only 4. Some of the S-II stages used ullage rockets: […]

4TNC turned out pretty well! A B4-2 had the right delay, but not quite enough thrust. The flight seemed to be, well, mushing (in the sense that an airplane can be mushing: descending on the back side of the power curve, not stalled, but not exactly flying well) for about 10m after clearing the launch […]

What do you do when you want to build a rocket quickly, for a tight launch deadline, and you don’t have any kits available that fit the bill, and you want something just a little different? How about a variant on the standby 3FNC and 4FNC designs: 4TNC, using tubes instead of fins? Yup, 4 […]

Out of the planned hold, for about a week now. Minor diversion to get a new rocket designed and built in time for this Saturday’s LUNAR launch at Moffett Federal Airfield. Despite the diversion, work continues on the Saturn V. The primary structure of the lower section of the rocket is completed. Along the way, […]

T minus who-knows-how-much and holding. We’re in a planned hold, a construction hiatus due to other planned activities. The shock cord is on the motor mount, though, and the aft motor mount centering ring is ready for installation. The after motor retainer has arrived (addition to kit); I’ll install that as I install the after […]