The president of our rocketry club has declared a GO for the Saturday August 14th launches, so the Artemis Booster / 04 is on for its next mission along with the maiden flights of Perseus boosters “Eagle” and “Columbia”.
Hope to see some of you there!
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(Harmon Flying Field – June 26, 2010)
A week after the last flight of the original Pegasus booster, the Pegasus booster MKII with its structural improvements took its maiden voyage earlier today on a C11-3 motor. Two flights were done on the C-11, reaching an altitude of about 450 feet. After two successful flights on the lower power engine, the new Pegasus spread its wings and climbed to about 1000 feet on its full power D12-5 engine. No structural issues were noted, and its improved baffle system performed as expected. The next flight of the new Pegasus booster will be in August.
I did not get to take any launch pictures, so some post-flight pics will have to do…
Pegasus MKII booster in the workshop for post flight inspection and cleanup.
Post flight inspections: Pegasus booster without the parachute bay (the gray upper part). Part of the ejection baffle system is visible.
The only real design tweak this time around will involve painting the Ejection baffle system to assist in cleanup readiness procedures for quicker turnaround between launches.
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The Planned night launch has been canceled due to a conflict in my schedule. Will shoot for an evening launch this coming “Patriot Day”, September 11th.
There were several launches of Artemis boosters # 2 and #4 last Friday, June 18th at Streetsboro City Park as part of their night movie in the park presentation “Planet 51”. I was there with the rockets along with other members of MTMA and the Skybusters rocket clubs. The last night of the evening was at 8:45PM as Artemis booster #2 streaked into the dusk sky for a spectacular liftoff, and perfect landing. It was a lot of fun.
Next launch is set for project Pegasus, with the Pegasus MKII making a few test flights at Harmon field June 26th. Should be a lot of fun!
The purpose of this next test flight is to test the ability of the new MKII airframe design to withstand the moments of maximum dynamic pressure, which caused structural damage to the first booster after its flight at the Streetsboro park demonstration flights. The booster functioned normally aside from a momentary “dip” in its flight trajectory– which was the moment the airframe was damaged as the rocket was under maximum aerodynamic stress.
We will report how the test flight goes!
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