(December 27, 2010 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH)
The first half of 2011 will see the introduction of two new rockets in the CPG Aeronautics fleet. X5-02 “Firefly” should see service by February 15. There is a chance we may even have a maiden voyage of Firefly by mid January.
Another rocket project has begun. Our first high power booster designated as Booster X6. The X6 will stand about 5 1/2 feet tall, and will be capable of reaching heights of 3,000 feet. This rocket will be built and used as the NAR level 1 certification attempt for Cornelius, and it is expected to be done by no later than May 2011.
The mid power booster missions planned between now and then are all aimed at testing various aspects of technology needed for the level 1 certification launch. All of the launches from October through December 2010 were involved in testing on-board camera systems and other avionics to be used in the X6 booster, as well as all future launches.
The next big tests for our active mid power booster fleet will involve testing the responsiveness of our dual deployment electronic systems.
We will be choosing a project name for the X6 booster in the next few months. We are still going through a list of candidate names as we file this report.
Our next report will be in the first week of January with a status report on the next launch (and the first for 2011).
((( )))