(April 1, 2013 – Cuyahga Falls)
The post NLS-003 mission flight inspection shows no flight damage to any area of the Nesaru XR6 rocket. Good News!
Some “scorching” around the back end of the rocket was observed, however.
Some “scorching” on the root edge of one of the fins..
I have come up with two possibilities for this scorching.
1) “Bounce Back” from exhaust flames hitting the blast deflctor on the launch pad, and hitting the back end of the rocket shortly after
motor ignition. (Most Likely).
2) The ambient temperature behind the rocket from the motor flame being pretty high (less likely).
More scorching on the rear support ring of the Nesaru XR-6 booster section.
- Another view of rear ring scorching.
Watching the launch video closely, frame by frame reveals nothing conclusive as to the cause.
Depending on your mindset while viewing, either of my above theories are possible causes.
As a precaution, I have lined the vulnerable areas of the rocket with aluminum tape, and will monitor progress over the next few flights.
After booster clean-up and aluminum tape applied to (hopefully) reduce future scorching…
Some other changes in the works:
After several rounds of “late inflation” of the main paracute in Nesaru mission NLS-003, and a few of the Artemis / Nala1 missions, I have come up with
a new parachute packing technique that *should* reduce the tendency of late deployment moving forward. This method will be ground tested on April 24th then
used on Nesaru mission NLS-004.
Weather permitting, NLS-004 is scheduled for launch this coming April 28th. Flight is planned to once again use the Aerotech H-180 motor.
(( ))