Coolest Sounding Rocket Launches Thread

I just stumbled upon this YouTube video of a Terrier Improved - Orion launch. It has to be one of the coolest launches I have seen. Notice in particular the period between the booster ends and the upper stage ignites.

I'd like people to post cool videos of sounding rocket launches (can be contained in documentaries) on this thread. Please post only real sounding rockets (not models) here.

Enjoy!

[video=youtube;GkbNS0j8ZmA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkbNS0j8ZmA[/video]

Wow, almost ten seconds of coast. I get nervous with a 2 second delay on my HP stages.

Here's one:

[video=youtube;nx5SeQWaZbE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5SeQWaZbE[/video]

a Terrier-improved Malemute from April 18, 2015.

Those upper stages have quite the spin rate.

This one is hard to beat...

[video=youtube;ldZbPSzx7sk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldZbPSzx7sk[/video]

markkoelsch said:

Those upper stages have quite the spin rate.

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I noticed that too... I wonder if that was deliberate or not.

K'Tesh said:

I noticed that too... I wonder if that was deliberate or not.

Click to expand...

I am sure it is deliberate to control dispersion.

K'Tesh said:

I noticed that too... I wonder if that was deliberate or not.

Click to expand...

From reading some of "Rockets of the World" that I recently received, it seems the spin is deliberate to keep the vertical orientation during the coast phase.

K'Tesh said:

I noticed that too... I wonder if that was deliberate or not.

Click to expand...

Yup, spin is intentional much like a football, to make its trajectory a bit more predictable, and to keep the downrange dispersion to a minimum.

Nate

grouch said:

This one is hard to beat...

[video=youtube;ldZbPSzx7sk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldZbPSzx7sk[/video]

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Yeah, too cool!

This is one of my faves.

[video=youtube;ELO3aU7os0U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELO3aU7os0U[/video]

Jason 5 stage rocket, 1958. Lots of footage of the stages being assembled.

[video=youtube;Mt2bZtLKS2o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2bZtLKS2o[/video]

The Aurora Research NASA lauch had me do some more research. Here is an interesting page with more info about it. https://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/news/story172.html Click on the "Vehicle" tab to see the rocket, a Talos-Terrier-Oriole-Nikha that can reach 1600km!

NASA also has Sounding Rockets annual reports here: https://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/download_archive.html

Flyfalcons said:

This is one of my faves

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Looks and sounds like a sparky! I'm surprised by all the flammable bits raining down after the launch.

I like the purple!

K'Tesh said:

I noticed that too... I wonder if that was deliberate or not.

Click to expand...

Quite a few sounding rockets had small motors to deliberately spin them up just after they left the launch rail. You can see them here just below the black fins on a skylark.

H_Rocket said:

Wow, almost ten seconds of coast. I get nervous with a 2 second delay on my HP stages.

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Chicken . I did a flight earlier in the year with 15.5 seconds delay from booster to sustainer. Seemed to take forever.

The Talos booster is known for blowing chunks. At WFF they told us that after a launch they plan for 'putting out fires', and so we asked them what kinds of problems do they usually have? They said 'No, we have to go put out grass fires started by the motor.'