Loki Research Les Derkovitz of the NASSA group gets ready for his flight. Les builds good motors, too good for his rocket as it turned out. Shreds were very common this year... at BALLS. It seemed that people's motor making skills have now outpaced their rocket building skills. ...

Loki Research BALLS 2003 Jason Gimbel, Jim Amos and Tracy Wood teamed up on this rocket, a scale Hermes made from all carbon fiber. The rocket weighed only 16 pounds dry and was powered by a 27,000 N-s O motor! ...

Loki Research BALLS 2003 After a bit of a struggle the rocket is ready. The motor utilized threaded closures, the snap ring is for motor retention. ...

Produced with Digital Photo Slide Show - http://www.digitalphotoslideshow.com... The motor catoed about 1 second into the burn, blowing the forward bulkhead up through the rocket... like a cannon ball. The remainder of the rocket continued down range until it landed here. What a rush! Mark and Gene are already planning next year's rocket. Guess where my ARTS is! There will be no data from that flight! ...

Loki Research BALLS 2003 The flight didn't last long. The NASSA motor ripped off the pad, and a brief time later the rocket suffered an airframe failure. Spiral wound fiberglass... tube is strong, but it's not invincible, and the ARTS (which survived the flight) recorded the break up right as the rocket was passing through the sound barrier. I never did a project this cool when I was a student! ...