Wow, what a beautiful day! There was not a cloud in the sky, light winds, and the temperature was in the low 50s, very comfortable. We had one Cato, but most of the flights were perfect, most landing for easy recovery by Wyatt, who volunteered to recover most of the flights.
Flash
Kevin started us with a Flash Pan launch. He lit black power in a small shallow pan which ignited his scratch-built “Orange Web of Doom” loaded with 7 various A and B motors. It all started with this puff of powder.
Ppooff!
He had a metal pan about the same diameter as the 7 motors grouped together. He used a rocket igniter to start the burn. That lit several of the motors (unfortunately not all of them) and sent the pan skyward.
Wyatt’s Estes Top Shot E12-4
Max Altitude (Feet) 1083
Top Speed (MPH) 182
Thrust Time (Sec) 2.85
Peak Acceleration (G) 11.5
Average Acceleration (G) 2.9
Coast to Apogee (Sec) 4.8
Apogee Ejection (Sec) -4.5
Ejection Altitude (Ft) 509
Descent Rate (MPH) 3
Total Flight Time (Sec) 106.3
Wyatt’s Estes Red Rider D12-0-C6-7
Max Altitude (Feet) 1360
Top Speed (MPH) 145
Thrust Time (Sec) 1.8
Peak Acceleration (G) 11.7
Average Acceleration (G) 3.5
Coast to Apogee (Sec) 8.1
Apogee Ejection (Sec) -8
Ejection Altitude (Ft) 207
Descent Rate (MPH) 1
Total Flight Time (Sec) 89.6
Nike Smoke
The Nike Smoke sounding rocket was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a part of the U.S. Army’s Nike family of rockets1, specifically for meteorological and upper-atmosphere research. NASA’s Nike Smoke project was developed at the Langley Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center laboratories. Derived from the Nike booster stage of the Nike Ajax missile, the rocket’s key feature was the use of titanium tetrachloride in its payload,
which produced a dense white smoke trail that allowed researchers to track wind patterns and measure atmospheric dynamics up to altitudes of 20–50 kilometers. This relatively low-cost and straightforward design made the Nike Smoke a valuable tool in studying atmospheric behavior and calibrating radar systems. Its development represents an intersection of military technology repurposed for scientific exploration.
Footnotes
- The project’s head was Harold Tolefson, along with his engineers Charles Dozier, Robert Henry, and Robert Miller. It was intended to launch about a hundred rockets within 1 year from Cape Kennedy, where the launch site was built adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The first launch was successfully conducted on May 17, 1962. From May 1962 until May 1963, 55 Nike Smokes were launched from Cape Kennedy. From July 1963 until January 1965, more than 70 Nike Smokes were launched from their Wallops Island launch site. The rocket proved an effective and cheap method to study wind patterns at high altitudes. ↩︎
Further Reading
Sources
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Smoke
- NASA Sounding Rockets 1958-1968 https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sp-4401.pdf
