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El Dorado County's, Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Steve Palmer, KA6DHU; his
son Robbie, Randy Palmer, WA6LCD; and Diane Palmer, KC6HVP were invited to participate
in the launch and recovery of the first civilian rocket into space. Space
is defined as beginning at 60 NM (62.5 SM or 100KM).
The Civilian Space Exploration Team's "GoFast" rocket lifted off at 11:12am,
Monday, May 17, 2004 and reached 77 miles in about 2 minutes, traveling as fast
as about 4,200 mph (mach 5.5). As you know we searched for the nose
cone/payload and avionics package on Monday, but ran out of daylight. We
had a good Df on the beacon, but had to leave the mountain at about 7:00 pm.
On Tuesday morning 2 DF teams went up the mountain and DF team one found it at
about noon (Randy and I were DF team 2 working up the mountain as DF team one
announced they had found it! The nose cone/payload and avionics sections
were buried about 40 inches into broken talus on a steep slope at about 6,200
feet above sea level (2,000+ feet above the desert floor). The payload/avionics
section was hauled off of the mountain to a VERY excited Ky Michaelson (the visionary
behind this effort).
At about 7:00 pm the nose cone was opened to retrieve the payload, a collection
of pictures, and other memorabilia placed there by team members. About
8:00 pm the data was downloaded from the on-board flight data recorder which
provided acceleration profile along with other data. The dual GPS
systems also logged data, but only for the first few seconds into flight and
again after the package was back on the ground.
The nosecone/payload is expected to be placed in the Smithsonian Air and Space
Museum. The engine section was not found, but was heard as a sonic
boom as it re-entered the atmosphere. It is probably in a crater in
the hills near where the payload section was recovered. We were welcomed into
the team by Eric Knight KB1EHE (avionics lead), Ian Kluft KO6YQ (Stratofox Aerospace
Tracking and Recovery team) and Ky Michaelson, the visionary behind this effort,
Hollywood stuntman and "Rocketman".
What a great experience!!
Many more pictures can be seen at http://www.stratofox.org and
a movie of the launch can be found at http://www.civilianspace.com.
Steve
KA6DHU
View Photos
Please note that pictures with KO6YQ in the file name should be credited to Ian
Kluft KO6YQ. Numbers in the filenames indicate the chronological order
of events.
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