Flight to over 96,000 feet at BALLS-26

[VernK]

[FONT=&amp]I would like to congratulate Noah Joraanstad on his successful flight to over 96,000 feet at the recent BALLS-26 launch on Sept 23, 2017. Noah flew his minimum diameter two-stage "[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Stratospheric Express" on a CTI N5800 in the booster and a CTI N3301 in the sustainer. Top speed was Mach 2.93. The flight was tracked the whole way up and down using the Multitronix TelemetryPro System (aka Kate.) Data, photos and onboard video from the flight are available on the Multitronix website at this link.

[/FONT]This was an exceptionally vertical flight. When the sustainer lit, the tilt angle was just 1.02 degrees from vertical. The descent was also nearly straight back down until it hit the top of the jet stream at about 40K feet. It was recovered 3.36 miles from the launch pad. Well done Noah!

 

[mpitfield]

Very cool pics and flight profile!

Congrats to Noah and to Vern on another successful Kate fight.

It will be interesting to see just how high and far Kate can track.

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[VernK]

It will be interesting to see just how high and far Kate can track.

Kate has been successfully ground tested to over 300,000 feet. At that range, it still had a solid data link and very good signal margins. It would have worked even further except that I was unable to find a location any further away that still had direct line of sight. Of course the true test will be an actual flight. Hopefully that will happen next year.....

 

[Bobfly]

Congratulations Vern and Noah,

You Guys created some amazing video and Kate sound track. It would be great if Noah could post some building photos. I like his window setup for the GoPro camera. Is that a stock component that can be purchased off the shelf or a custom product?

Congratulations,
Bob

 

[billdz]

I see at the same launch someone also launched a two-stage rocket with N motors and a Kate to 118,000 feet, that's even more impressive. See https://www.multitronix.com/118k-flight.html

 

[VernK]

I see at the same launch someone also launched a two-stage rocket with N motors and a Kate to 118,000 feet, that's even more impressive. See https://www.multitronix.com/118k-flight.html

Yes but that flight was three years ago.

 

[crossfire]

Was the flight planned for basically no main chute? Or was there a main chute charge failure?

 

[VernK]

Was the flight planned for basically no main chute? Or was there a main chute charge failure?

Noah planned the flight to come all the way down on drogue. There was no main chute onboard.

 

[crossfire]

Noah planned the flight to come all the way down on drogue. There was no main chute onboard.

For sure that made sense. Just was wondering.

 

[VernK]

I like his window setup for the GoPro camera. Is that a stock component that can be purchased off the shelf or a custom product?

I asked Noah about his camera window. It is a sapphire window from Esco Optics. I believe he had a custom aluminum mount for it machined.

 

[Bat-mite]

Very impressive. This is rocketry way beyond anything I will ever do.

 

[Sailorbill]

Very impressive. This is rocketry way beyond anything I will ever do.

Congratulations Noah Joraanstad!
It is extremely impressive what some of our rocketeers can do! I know that there is no way I could manage one of these on my own but they are so much fun to watch and Kate totally improves the experience.

 

[AlphaHybrids]

Come to Colorado - I know I can see Mt. Evans from Fort Collins - 95 miles away.

Edward

 

[JimJarvis50]

This was a really nice flight! Really nice. I always enjoy seeing these two-stage flights work because I know it isn't all that easy. The only thing that surprised me about the flight was that it "only" reached 96K. I know the simulations were quite a bit higher, and I was really surprised listening to Kate when it didn't go higher. Was there anything in the Kate data that indicated why it didn't go higher, or any heat damage? It would be interesting to compare the flight data against the simulation.

Jim

 

[VernK]

Was there anything in the Kate data that indicated why it didn't go higher, or any heat damage? It would be interesting to compare the flight data against the simulation.

I never saw his simulation data but before the flight Noah told me he was "Hoping for 100K". I did not see anything in the Kate data that looked out of place. The measured burn times for both motors exactly matched the expected times.

 

[JimJarvis50]

I never saw his simulation data but before the flight Noah told me he was "Hoping for 100K". I did not see anything in the Kate data that looked out of place. The measured burn times for both motors exactly matched the expected times.

Well, now that I check back, I guess I don't know what the simulation was. It was another flyer that was expecting higher and I got them confused. Maybe it wasn't far from the simulation. A really great Kate-enhanced flight.

Jim

 

[VernK]

A really great Kate-enhanced flight.

By the way, I now have flight data from over 100 Kate flights made during the last few years. They all had solid GPS lock well before apogee and throughout the rest of the flight. All of them had a good downlink. There have been zero failures so far. I am very pleased with that.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

That's great Vern. Good job.

 

[Gattack]

Awesome video and data Vern!


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