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July
20, 2003
Open
source rocketry... A sub-section of Advanced
Rocketry now lists various open
source rocketry projects in both software and hardware.
While hardware projects can't duplicate the joint simultaneous construction
quite the way it happens with in open source software, a similar
open communications and documentation approach can definitely improved
the productivity of individuals and groups with common interests
but separated geographically by large distances. Also, it's possible
in some cases for the hardware to be divided into sub-systems that
individuals and groups can develop locally and then merge later
with the other sub-systems into the complete apparatus.
July
18, 2003
Amateur
Black Brant ... The Black
Brant Project will build a 107% scale version of the Black
Brant II and propel it with three "54,600 NS motors (33%
"P" motors), all lit on the pad." It should reach 14,700 feet
(4.48km) and a velocity of Mach 1.20 (1320 Feet/Second)
The project
is led by Wedge Oldham who previously built and launched a 1/3 scale
Nike
Hercules replicas at LDRS 20 & 21. Other participants
include Darren Wright of Ozark
Aerospace and Jeff Taylor of Loki
Research. Performance
Rocketry will
supply the fiberglass nosecone. They
plan to launch the vehicle at BALLS
2004 in Nevada.
Wedge is also
pursuing an interesting 10X scale up of the Estes
Orbital Transport.
Great
BALLS of Fire and Rockets... The BALLS
2003 meet will take place at Black Rock Desert, Nevada during
September 19-21. As this page
makes clear, this event is intended for DANGEROUS LAUNCHES. It is
a "venue for projects that should NOT be flow publicly due
to safety and legal restrictions." No kids allowed!
July
8, 2003
Aerospike
to take flight... John Garvey reports
on his website that he and the CSULB
team will refurbish their aerospike
engine (see image above) and attempt "a powered
flight test of it using the already-proven Prospector
2. Tentative plans are to fly in August, assuming we can convince
the RRS folks and the rest of our team to venture out to the desert
at that time of year."
July
6, 2003
Dragoon
follow-up...
Kevin Sagis tells me that the mission shown below "was the
first flight of the Dragoon. We are going to undertake a series
of test flights, extending the envelope. Then, we're planning on
entering the nano-satellite launch services business. Next steps
include a space shot later this fall."
July
5, 2003
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| Paragon
Dragoon launch. (Click on pictures for larger versions.) |
Paragon
Dragoon Success... Kevin Sagis of Paragon
Astronautics reports that the launch of the Dragoon
sounding rocket on June.14th "was a tremendous success! We
had full recovery and a picture perfect flight. Performance was
greater than preflight predictions with an apogee of over 80k feet.[24.4km]"
The Paragon
Foundation intends to develop educational programs
around the Dragoon and other rocketry projects.
July
1, 2003
Amateur
rocketships... Andrew Case, who assists with this News
page, discusses the state of amateur manned rockets in The
promise of amateur suborbital spaceflight : Homebuilt spacecraft
could soon take to the skies - The Space Review - June.30.03.
He also put some additional info and links at Rocketforge
where comments on the article can be posted.
Rocket
chats... Michael Mealling at Rocketforge is starting
an on line chat system for discussion of advanced rocketry : YARCS
(Yet Another Rocketry Chat System) - Rocketforge - June.29.03
Continue
to June 30, 2003
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