This is the first launch attempt as the CSXT team with Jerry Larson as the lead engineer and master designer. The first article is Bruce Lee's story and time line for Space Shot 2000. The second following article is the technical description of the Space Shot 2000 attempt written by Jerry Larson. The third article is a short part of the story from an article written by Derek Deville.
CSXT – Space Shot 2000
The trip to Gerlach Nevada on September 26, 2000 was 2 years in the making. Well, actually longer than 2 years, but who’s counting, in government time. That is when Ky Michaelson, “The Rocketman,” put in his space shot waiver request to FAA. And not for the C.A.T.S. prize, but for a private attempt. Two years of phone calls and waiting, and waiting and waiting. Wednesday September 27, 2000 at 7:00AM the team gathers as a whole for the first time on the Black Rock Desert, and guess what? No waiver yet!
Four years ago, Ky Michaelson put together a little idea of his, regular people getting together to launch a payload into space. He put his idea on his web page (www.the-rocketman.com) and called it the Civilian Space TranXport. He included a drawing of his vision of a 2-stage rocket that would take this payload to space. This rocket was a 13-inch diameter 12-foot-tall booster with a 4.5-inch diameter 7 foot tall second stage. He even went as far as to order the tubing for this giant. At Ky’s annual Super Bowl party, at his home in Minneapolis Minnesota, Bruce Lee had the opportunity to discuss the project with Ky and volunteered, with Mike Wrobel and Tony Cochran, to build a full-scale replica of this CSXT design as a promotional rocket for Tripoli Rocketry Association annual national launch, LDRS. We built it and flew it but no one else was interested in joining the CSXT team (if they only knew!).
Ky was determined to make this work and filed the FAA paperwork. Ky made contact with Jerry Larson, a rocket engineer in real life, and they discussed the CSXT project. Jerry suggested a completely different rocket design. This was partly driven by the fact that the FAA would not accept a two-stage rocket for the first serious space attempt. Two stages would make trajectory analysis to difficult, and believable for the FAA to accept. Jerry and Ky came up with a large single stage solid rocket. The team of Ky Michaelson, Jerry Larson, Bruce Lee and others had their project. Jerry Larson was the chief designer/engineer and number cruncher, Ky Michaelson was team leader and chief fabricator, Bruce Lee and others filled in the gaps.
During 1999 the rocket started taking shape. Jerry and Ky kept up the pressure on the FAA, but were not making much progress, but things looked good. In 2000 Jerry finished the paperwork changes the FAA wanted and Ky finished the rocket. Regular calls to the FAA got the standard response, “we’re working on it.”
Wednesday morning, September 27, with the team at the Black Rock desert, we have to hope we are going to get the waiver. Last word on Tuesday was that the waiver request had to be reviewed by the FAA lawyers. This sounded ominous. The first launch window planned was for Thursday morning. We could not wait, so we unloaded the truck. The most physically demanding part of the launch was assembling the launch tower. Ky and Bruce with team assistants: Jim Hoffman, Bruce Kelly, Mike Wrobel, Tony Cochran and Roger McNamara; spent 3 hours putting it together. Ky and Jerry went to town to call the FAA, still no waiver. We loaded the rocket into the tower while it was laying on the ground. Team assistants Rick Loehr, who built the rocket motor, with Jim Rosson and Paul Robinson started to assemble the 275,000 newton-seconds motor (hobby terms a R18,330). All assembled we stood the tower up with the rocket and it was beautiful. Just add one American flag to the tower and we were done. Jerry and Ky again head into to town to see if we received the waiver.
An hour later at 4:00PM Ky and Jerry are back. Ky is all smiles, “look at this” he says, “390,000 feet.” Yes, believe it or not we finally have a FAA waiver, all the way to the maximum projected altitude of 390,000 feet. The FAA came through, but talk about the last minute, WOW! The first window is for 0700 Thursday morning. We wrap things up knowing we cannot be ready for 0700 Thursday and head off to Bruno’s for steak dinners. We come back after dark to see the rocket lit up with spotlights in the tower and have a little campfire and photo-op.
Thursday morning with the BLM and FAA permits in hand its time to get serious. We have to do final integration, electronics testing, payload assembly, ejection systems testing, weather balloon testing and dry run rehearsal. Jerry and Roger work on the electronics bay while everyone else assists Ky with the payload, capsule, parachutes and piston ejection system. That’s right, piston ejection, but not the PML kind. Ky, knowing that regular pyro charges do not work well in the vacuum of space, has come up with a unique high pressure gas piston arrangement. A 440cc gas bottle is filled with 130 PSI air, which is held back by a solenoid and goes to a piston with a pogo like stick. At apogee, a timer actuates the solenoid letting gas in the piston and the pogo stick pushes the nose cone off the rocket deploying the parachutes. We found out that the portable generator does not have enough oomph to run a compressor, so testing this unit proved difficult.
Additional modifications are made to the parachute assemblies to ensure that they do not hang up on deployment. Payload preparation and final integration are going along fine. Bruce and Roger start working on the balloon electronics and recovery systems. Testing the electronics ejection system on the ground, Bruce discovers we get separation but no parachute. Bruce designs a modification to add a piston plate and retesting demonstrates it works. Rick has weather balloon experience and helps Jerry and Bruce with a test flight. The balloon takes off going towards 5,000 feet, when at 4,000 feet the electronics bay separates and falls to earth destroying the unit. Bruce bumps up the amount of ejection charge and tape the electronics bay to the nose cone, then adds a second parachute as a backup in case the electronics separates again. We only have one unit left and it must work for a test flight and 2 production flights. Fortunately, everything works through the launch.
We have been allowed a 1900 to 2000 launch window on Thursday and Ky says we will use it if we are ready. We are not, so we call it a day just before sunset and are told to be at the launch site at 0530 Friday morning. Back at Bruno’s the team gathers and we review the checklist, responsibilities, crowd control and timing.
0530 Friday morning we arrive at the launch site, it is cold and dark. On the way out to the site Tony and I have the breakfast of champions, Soda and Pop Tarts. We start out working with flashlights. The waiver requires us to notify 4 FAA ATCC’s (Salt Lake, Reno, Portland and San Jose) within 45 minutes of the launch window. No one has a cell phone that will make it, so the BLM helps with getting us the phone. The waiver also requires launch within 20 minutes of the balloon launch to 1000 feet. Timing is going to be critical and everything has to be ready to go by 0730. Jerry performs final preparation of the electronics; Bruce, Rick and Roger work on the balloons; Mike and Tony work with Ky on the payload, nose cone and parachutes; and we set up the weather station.
0730, we are all ready and Jerry starts down the checklist. The nose cone and payload section are loaded onto the rocket.
0745, calls are made to the 4 FAA ATCC’s.
0800, the first balloon is launched to 5,000 feet and recovered.
0815, the second balloon is launched to 1,000 feet and recovered quickly. Jerry inputs the data read outs from the balloon into his wind weighting computer to start the final landing analysis and azimuth settings.
0830, the computer spits out the data and he radios to the pad, set launch angle to 86.5 degrees. The crew sets the angle and then everyone heads back to the LCO table.
0835, Ky and Jerry head to launcher control box.
0839, Jerry calls the Bruce, the RSO (Range Safety Officer), for air clearance. Bruce announces "The skies are clear and the range is clear."
0840, Jerry announces 1 minute to launch, 30 seconds, 10 seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 launch. Two seconds later the motor comes up to full pressure and the CSXT is away on a big blue flame. Lift off to landing is 3 and ½ minutes, motor burn time is 15 seconds. The rocket goes through Mach 1, then 2, 3 and finally Mach 4. Motor burn out and then, Separation! At 8 miles up going 3205 mph (Mach 4.9) the rocket comes apart.
Two miles to the east, a cameraman calls in, the payload section landed out by him. Ky and Jerry take off to recover it. Mark Clark and Robin Meredith go downrange and find the body tube and motor 3 miles to the north. Someone else finds the nose cone. The body tube is missing all of the fins, one of which is found later out by the payload section. The team gathers to review all the recovered pieces. What went wrong? No one is sure but there are plenty of theories.
The payload section is partially flattened by the 8-mile drop. After several hours of work we free the electronics from being jammed in the payload on landing. Jim has a Palm Pilot and they plug it in to the electronics.
“Downloading data,” miraculously the electronics survived and we have the data. Now for a new wrinkle to the failure puzzle, the rocket made it past max Q before it came apart. The rocket was slowing down when it broke up. Review of the video tape was inconclusive due to the distance up. Analysis of the failure mode continues. Turns out the failure was with a fin failure.
Although the team was unsuccessful in achieving the goal of reaching space, the team accomplished many primary objectives and set new standards for amateur space rocket launches. Here are some of the main accomplishments:
1) Set new amateur rocket burnout speed record of 3205 mph (Mach 4.9)
2) First amateurs to develop software, hardware and conducted wind weighting for a ground based space launch.
3) Obtained all waivers and permits from the FAA, AST (390,000 feet) and BLM in strict accordance with government regulations.
4) Established real-time communications with four (4) Air Traffic (ATCC) FAA Radar Centers for local aircraft surveillance and launch abort capability.
5) Open the doors for future ground based space shot rocket launches.
SPACESHOT 2000 Team Members
Ky Michaelson - Project Director, Launch Director (LD)
Jerry Larson - Project Manager, Launch Conductor (LC)
Bruce Lee - Range Safety Officer (RSO)
Roger McNamara - Winds Team Lead, Alternate Launch Conductor
Rick Loehr - Motor Design and Builder, Winds Team
Jim Hoffman - Pad Manager (PM)
Tyler Larson - Winds Team
Randy and Gene Stinner - Machinists
Mike Wrobel - Medical (EMT) and photography
Tony Cochran – Ground support and launch tower set up
Bruce Kelly, Jim Rosson, Paul Robinson, Mark Clark and Robin Meredith; general assistance at the launch site.
Many thanks to others that were on hand to help out with erecting the tower and final preparations for launch.
We would also like to thank the key government officials who helped to make this possible. These are great people that worked long hard hours to get the paper work through the system for us.
We would like to personally thank Ky Michaelson for sponsoring this event and providing us the opportunity to take one step closer to fulfilling our dream of launching into space.
SPACESHOT 2000: A Civilian Space Launch
Written By Jerry Larson
“SPACESHOT” – a word coined in the mid-60s at the peak of America’s dreams of space exploration. It conjures up images of the Gemini and Apollo missions, and of the grand vision – and ultimate reality – of landing a man on the moon. It is this very same excitement that was central to the "SPACESHOT 2000” mission, and continues to be the driving force behind a team of dedicated amateur space enthusiasts destined to make history by reaching space. The following is an overview of the technology that made the launch of SPACESHOT 2000 possible, providing insights to the challenges that need to be overcome to successfully launch an amateur rocket into space. The Goal: The physical boundary between Earth and space is not a clearly defined line, but a definition does exist. NASA has specified a region above the Earth beginning at 50 nautical miles as “the edge of space.” Since 1995, propelling a rocket beyond this altitude has been the single goal of the Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT). CSXT was founded by Ky Michaelson – a retired Hollywood Stunt man and coordinator who has worked with rocket-powered vehicles for more than fifty years. Michaelson, together with Jerry Larson, an aerospace engineer, and other members of CSXT, seek to be the first amateur team to launch their own rocket into space. The team’s SPACESHOT 2000 rocket was specifically designed to accomplish the goal of reaching space. It was manufactured and launched without the aid of government assets or government involvement of any kind, qualifying it as a true amateur space vehicle. To this date, no amateur civilian team has successfully built and launched a rocket into space.
The Challenge
The maiden flight of the rocket was designed with a sub-orbital trajectory flight profile similar to Alan Shepard’s historic flight in 1963. The total mission time – from liftoff to touchdown – would last only five minutes. The high velocity boost portion of flight would be a mere 15 seconds. If the vehicle survived powered flight, only 90 seconds of coast would stand between Earth and space. It is simple in concept, but difficult in practice – as CSXT discovered with the launch of SPACESHOT 2000 rocket. Aside from the technical obstacles, a substantial portion of the challenge would come from the process of obtaining U.S. Government approval for the flight. That challenge began over two years earlier – and was present right up until the launch. In fact, with the rocket sitting on the launch pad, and less than 24 hours from the launch, permission for the flight had still not been granted. There was enormous relief when the final FAA approval was faxed to a tiny motel in a desolate area of Nevada (where the launch was to take place) – giving the amateur team the green light to launch into space.
The Speed
The “Shot” in “SPACESHOT” has literal meaning. To reach space, the rocket must achieve speeds far greater than a bullet shot from a rifle. The velocity has to be in excess of 4,000 mph, or nearly 5 times the speed of sound (Mach 5). In aerodynamic terms, the rocket’s speed is characterized as “hypersonic” – exhibiting airflow properties and forces that are significantly magnified. The faster the flight speed, the greater the challenge to build a rocket capable of withstanding the harsh and unforgiving environment created around the rocket during flight. The aerodynamic frictional forces, alone, cause extreme heating on the nose cone tip and fin leading edges – with temperatures capable of melting aluminum. The maximum dynamic pressure, or “Max Q” as it is called in the aerospace industry, reaches 8,000 pounds per square foot – creating a drag force of 1,200 pounds. With the rocket motor producing 5,000 pounds of force in the opposing direction, the rocket would literally be crushed without high-strength materials used in the design. During the high-speed portion of flight, even the slightest sudden deviation in the rocket’s attitude could be catastrophic, shredding the airframe.
The Rocket
SPACESHOT 2000 was 15 feet tall, 9 inches in diameter, and weighted 437 pounds fully loaded. Solid rocket propellant made up 228 pounds of the rocket’s mass, and would be completely expelled in the 15 seconds of powered flight. After that time, the rocket would head into space entirely on its own momentum.
Structural components of the rockets airframe were made predominantly from high-strength aluminum alloys. The four-foot long conical nose cone was machined from a solid block of aluminum and fitted with a six-inch steel tip to mitigate aerodynamic heating effects. The rocket was unguided, meaning that the fixed fins at the aft of the vehicle provided all of the restoring forces to keep the rocket pointed spaceward. Four fins machined from aluminum plates were bolted to the airframe section through the root edge.
The Propulsion System
Propulsion for the vehicle would come from a single-stage, high precision amateur solid rocket motor designed and built from scratch. Solid rocket technology was chosen because of its simplicity and ease of operation at the launch site. A single-stage rocket was selected for its greater trajectory control, and simplified the process of licensing with the FAA (the original 2 stage design was unacceptable to the FAA at the time). The motor’s propellant consisted primarily of ammonium perchlorate oxidizer and aluminum powder fuel – very similar to what is used in the Space Shuttle’s twin solid-rocket motors. The fuel grain was comprised of seven segments housed in the motor’s aluminum casing. The thrust profile was controlled by tailoring the geometric properties of the propellant surface. The rocket nozzle was designed to produce nearly 5,000 pounds of thrust. Threaded closures on the forward and aft ends of the motor casing held the assembly together, and was engineered to withstand the over 600 pounds per square inch operating pressure inside the motor. Weeks before the flight, the motor casing was hydro (water) tested well above the expected operating pressure – to minimize the possibility of an explosion on the launch pad. The motor performance would reach critical levels at the end of the 15- second burn. The temperatures inside the nozzle approach 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit – as hot as the surface of the Sun. The 15-second motor burn would thermally stress the motor casing to its limits, and the potential for casing burn-through – and subsequent explosion – was high for the untested new design.
The Electronics and Recovery System
The payload section contained redundant flight recorders, each with an accelerometer for measuring the rocket’s performance, and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and antennas for recording the maximum altitude achieved during the flight (thus verifying that the rocket indeed reached space). Two parachutes, initially deployed in the vacuum of space, would separately bring back the nose cone and the payload and main airframe sections to the FAA-approved recovery zone. The recovery deployment system was comprised of a small, pressurized cylinder that would drive a piston to separate the nose cone from the payload and main airframe section. Failure of this system to function would result in a ballistic re-entry of the vehicle impacting the desert floor at supersonic speeds – an event the team witnessed firsthand on a previous flight attempt in 1997.
The Anticipated Flight Sequence
At the moment of launch, a command is sent from the firing box to ignite the motor. Even before the motor reaches full pressure, the rocket begins to move upward; the rocket lifts off the pad when the thrust level is a mere 437 pounds (the weight of the rocket). The rocket’s acceleration reaches 10 times Earths gravitation (g’s) and clears the 20-foot tower in 0.25 seconds at a speed of 150 mph. The rocket breaks through the sound barrier in just 3.5 seconds at 3,000 feet above the launcher. At 15 seconds into the flight, the motor has consumed its fuel load; the rocket has reached 40,000 feet altitude and is traveling at 4,000 mph. The U.S. Government imposes a 1,000- knot (1,152 mph) restriction on the useable velocity of an off-the-shelf commercial GPS unit (CoCom limits), primarily so it cannot be used in the manufacture of ballistic missiles. Because of this restriction, the GPS receivers onboard the SPACESHOT 2000 will shut down during the rapid ascent phase. The vehicle will coast for 90 seconds before reaching space. At the peak of the rocket’s trajectory (apogee), the rocket will be traveling only a few hundred miles per hour – which is under the U.S. Government’s GPS velocity restriction. The GPS units will output data once again, and record the rocket’s exact location in space. After reaching apogee, and for nearly two minutes, the vehicle will experience the weightlessness of space. The Earth’s gravity will then begin to direct the rocket’s trajectory downward, and the velocity will begin to increase. At a pre-determined point in the descent flight plan, the on-board timers will send signals to the recovery system to initiate the deployment of the parachutes. The nose cone will then be ejected, pulling with it the parachutes for both the payload and the nose cone assemblies. As the rocket falls towards Earth, the atmosphere gradually becomes denser, and the parachutes will begin to inflate. Terminal velocity of the rocket is anticipated to be 60 mph, quick enough to keep the rocket from drifting off the predefined recovery range.
The Launch Site
In a remote section of Northern Nevada is a dry lakebed named Black Rock. It’s a vast, open, and uninhabited region where rocket launches into space can be safely conducted. CSXT has conducted all space flight attempts from this area. Even in such a remote region, great care must be taken. A rocket capable of reaching space also has enough energy to land hundreds of miles from the launch site. High tech procedures must be followed to ensure an accurate and safe trajectory.
Precision Flying
To land a rocket in a recovery zone that’s 20 miles away requires launch techniques, procedures, and equipment far beyond the means of typical amateur rocketeers. The challenge can be likened to hitting a postage stamp with a dart from 20 feet away. CSXT committed to developing “wind weighting” technology – a computationally intensive procedure designed to adjust the rocket launcher, compensating for the effect winds will have on the rocket’s flight direction. An unguided fin-stabilized rocket, as the SPACESHOT 2000, will naturally turn into the wind, thus altering the landing site dramatically. “Weather cocking,” as it’s professionally called, is the single-largest accuracy-disturbing force on an unguided rocket. Without wind compensation, public safety would be compromised, and the hopes of successful recovery from such an extreme altitude flight would be nearly impossible. Not only did CSXT need to compensate for the winds to aid in safety and vehicle recovery, but it was also a U.S. Government requirement. In order to qualify for launch approval, the FAA mandated that wind-weighting procedures be developed and implemented. It took 18 months, three meetings with the FAA in Washington D.C., and stacks of documentation for the government to gain confidence in the launch procedures and the rocket’s design. CSXT is one of only a few amateur organizations in the world to be granted permission to attempt an amateur rocket launch into space.
Wind-Weighting
CSXT’s launch countdown procedures included wind measurements using a combination of state-of-the-art GPS technology, weather balloons, and ground-based anemometers. GPS technology made it possible to precisely measure the wind-driven path of a weather balloon as it ascends through the atmosphere – providing the launch team with the required wind data for trajectory computations. The measured wind data would then be entered into the trajectory simulation and targeting algorithms of a computer at the launch site. The computer would determine the precise solution of launcher azimuth and elevation settings for directing the rocket’s trajectory towards the recovery target zone 20 miles away. Wind speed and direction would be continually monitored on the ground, to alert the launch team if the winds should suddenly change direction; a significant change would invalidate the balloon data causing the team to repeat the entire procedure during the next available launch window.
The Launch
In the pre-dawn hours on September 29th 2000, with the aid of floodlights, the launch team began final countdown preparations. A phone call to the FAA specified a thirty-minute launch window during which radar traffic controllers would look for stray aircraft entering the hazard area. After the launch time was established, the team would begin over an hour of wind-weighting procedures. The launcher was adjusted to an azimuth of 30 degrees and an elevation angle of 86.5 degrees; this was only half a degree from the maximum allowable 87 degrees that would result in a launch scrub. At 8:40 a.m. PST, 10 minutes into the launch window, the SPACESHOT 2000 motor was ignited – and the rocket came to life. The Black Rock dry lakebed echoed with the roar of the motor operating at full thrust. The vehicle performed well as it broke through the sound barrier only a few seconds after liftoff. The pressure transducers measured the shock wave on the rocket; this data was captured on both flight recorders. The sonic boom was recorded on the audio track of a video camera that was stationed on a mountainside eight miles away. Flying straight and true, the rocket’s trajectory was lower and more easterly than predicted by computer simulations. About six seconds into the flight, as the rocket was rapidly picking up speed, it hit an unexpected wind sheer at 11,000 feet and turned slightly northward. This turn was the last data point the onboard GPS recorded before shutting down, as it was traveling faster than U.S. restrictions. The rocket continued burning upwards towards space. As the motor thrust was tailing off, the rocket hit another wind shear at 38,000 feet – turning the rocket abruptly. A quarter of a second later, the loss of one or all of the four fins caused the vehicle to lose aerodynamic stability, followed immediately by total vehicle break-up – as bending loads stressed the airframe joints beyond their structural limits. In a blink of an eye the vehicle had failed – and the mission was over. The fins could be seen reflecting in the morning sunlight as they fluttered away from the break-up location. The debris was scattered to the east of the intended trajectory path, carried there by prevailing jet stream winds. Six of the seven break-up debris pieces were later identified from slow-motion video footage of the launch. The payload section containing the flight recorders was one of the pieces recovered nearly two miles away. Computer analysis of the data revealed that both flight recorders functioned normally, recording the rocket’s acceleration and altitude during the flight. One flight recorder shut down as the vehicle began to break up; the other continued collecting data during its five minute free fall from 45,000 feet to impact on the dry lakebed. At the moment of vehicle break up, both accelerometers recorded the sensor’s maximum scale value of 60 g’s of deceleration; it is believed that the actual forces were much higher. The recovery system’s timer, on the still-functioning recorder, sent the parachute deployment signal at its appropriate time – four minutes after liftoff – as the broken vehicle was falling; however, the parachutes and pneumatic deployment device had already been torn away minutes before by the extreme aerodynamic forces. The Post-Flight Redesign Data collected from the flight recorders provided excellent insight into the vehicle’s performance, and offers critical input for future missions. Analysis of the flight data indicated that the vehicle reached a maximum speed of 3,205 mph; even though this set a new amateur speed record, it was still significantly below the design target of 4,000 mph. A computer technique developed by CSXT, was used to derive both the actual motor performance and trajectory flight profile. Thrust reconstruction of SPACESHOT 2000 has been used to size the motor for the next flight attempt. This step in the redesign process was necessary to ensure that the velocities required to reach space will be attained. Post-flight analysis of the wind shear data revealed that the induced bending loads on the fins significantly exceeded the structural strength of the bolting system used to mount the fins. This design deficiency would be the main focus of the redesign for the next Space Shot rocket. Six months of intense failure investigation and new design work has resulted in the PRIMERA rocket – CSXT’s next generation space launch vehicle (Space Shot 2002). Standing 18 feet tall and weighing 550 pounds, PRIMERA is the most powerful amateur rocket ever built. As of the writing of this article (2001), the FAA has granted CSXT approval to launch PRIMERA into space. In June 2002, the launch team will once again travel to the deserts of Nevada to take its “shot” at making history. Final Thoughts As Robert Goddard once profoundly said, “Reaching space would be a passion to occupy one’s lifetime.” This couldn’t be truer even today as the CSXT strives to pursue the same dream. Nearly 70 years after Goddard’s pioneering efforts, an amateur team sets out to accomplish the same goal – not for political, military, or any other government reason, but simply to show it can be done and that space is for all to explore. SPACESHOT 2000 was the next step in one amateur team’s quest to reach space.
From the article:
Putting the 'S' in CSXT
Making the Largest Successful Amateur Motor Ever
By Derek Deville
In November 1997 the Cheap Access To Space (CATS) prize was announced, promising $250,000 to the first private team to launch a 2kg payload into space, 200km or higher, using a privately developed launch vehicle. The flurry of activity surrounding launch-waiver applications complicated the process, and everyone was having trouble getting waivers, including CSXT. Aware of this, Jerry Larson, an aerospace engineer, offered to join the CSXT team and input his expertise in launch simulation. Jerry was immediately appointed the project manager, and he began work on the next vehicle.
By September 2000 the new vehicle was ready. It had lost the second stage but had grown significantly, into a single-stage 434-pound beast that was nearly 9 inches in diameter. With the rocket now powered by an R18,000 motor containing 228 pounds of propellant, space seemed within reach. At launch the rocket boosted well and was on its way to space when at 45,000 feet one of the fins succumbed to the high loads and broke free. Unstable, the vehicle tumbled and broke up. On a positive note, the team did set a new amateur speed record of 3,205 mph.
In November 2000 the CATS prize expired. Until this point Ky had primarily funded the CSXT project, but the expense was getting to be too great. A skeleton of the next generation rocket was displayed at a trade show, and new sponsorship was found. Primera, a leading manufacturer of CD/ DVD duplicating hardware, came to the table with funds to help put the team on track for another launch.
CSXT - Civilian Space eXploration Team
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