I spent a bunch of time this weekend at my friend Dan’s. He has a wood lathe and is pretty accomplished with it. A few months ago, the conversation turned to woodworking and nose cones and balsa. Though he had no experience with balsa and its very low density, he was willing to give it […]

In my recent blog entry that mentioned the C5-3 CATO, I said I’d post some pictures of the CATO. With thanks to Ryan Coleman, fellow LUNARtic who sent them over, and Shaina Pierce, his friend who took the pictures, here they are. The recovery parachute and the upper portion of the rocket are intact; the […]

I started working on a new rocket a couple of days ago. It’s a combination of a few designs, including one whose C5-3 CATOed at LUNAR‘s Ames launch last Saturday. (It was a pretty cool CATO, even if it was a maiden flight. Who ever heard of an 18mm black powder motor CATOing? Yeah, it […]

King Tut’s Pyramid, from Sunward Aerospace, has become one of my favorite rockets. It’s different from most of the other rockets flying, and I see fewer pyramids than most other oddrocks, like spools. King Tut’s Pyramid, though small, is not a light rocket. It’s about 25 cm tall (9″ or so) with a mass of […]

Ahh, finally: a new rocket. Well, not really quite so new: it’s an old kit I bought through eBay, issued in 1991 (originally issued in 1975). A Klingon Battle Cruiser. There are a lot of construction details, including a great deal of plastic parts to cut out. The warp nacelles, the bridge, the hangar deck. […]

To moderate the lack of recent notes, see the postings from early February on my non-rocketry blog, with tales of the Endeavour launch at 4:14am on Monday, February 8 for the STS-130 mission.

Launch report: we had a great time! My nephew launched my Big Bertha, and his Alpha III twice. The second launch was a drag race with my Krystal. After Adam left, I launched King Tut’s Pyramid, always a crowd-pleaser. Winds were very, very light. In fact, once the overcast burned off, they were just about […]

I guess the options are few. Quit the hobby. Scrap the rocket. Repair the damage. I’ve said that we rocketeers are at least slightly lunatic. After all, we spend a lot of time and money creating something that we intend then to fling rather violently into the sky—and we expect the creation to return intact! […]

Planning to launch this Saturday during LUNAR‘s monthly launch window. Planned manifest: Apogee Saturn V, either on a G64W (if Paul or someone else will lend a casing and build the motor with me) or a G77R. King Tut’s Pyramid (new rocket), on a G38FJ. Krystal on D12-0, 2×A3-4T; A8-5. Perhaps Big Bertha, on a […]

Success! Krsytal flew well! Twice, to ensure it wasn’t a fluke. All four engines lit both times: three in the booster, one in the sustainer. Booster pods deployed their chutes just fine. Cliff asked me to write an article for the’Clips.