Sonoran Science Academy - 2-Stage Launches - March 27, 2009

On March 27, 2009, the SSA Broadway 3rd Grade Rocketeers launched their 2-Stage rockets. These were built from Estes Loadstar kits and were flown on B6-0/B-6-6 motors. Once again they had a great day with 100% of the rockets igniting both stages! Awesome job class!



A thank you to Mrs. Jahan's father, Otto, who helped install the ignitors into the rocket motors!


Alan choosing some other rockets for a demo after the students had fired all their Loadstar rockets.
The Sonoran Science Academy students behaved very well, following instructions. I would love to teach this class again.


A few fins on the student's rockets were broken off by accident during the walk to the park. We repaired them quickly with some strong packing tape and they actually flew well. They were pretty happy we had that roll off tape in our box of supplies...


Rocketry can sure be a fun family affair!





Another special thank you to Jet's Mom, Diane Thevenot, for sticking around afterword with her husband Jim, to help clean everything up and especially for driving around and finding one of our favorite demo rockets, the 36 D Squared, that ended up in a rocket eating tree outside the park. Thanks guys!







Thanks again for parent volunteers that helped retrieve rockets with the kids.

In case you are wondering, that is Jet's motor.




A rocket launch is definitely an emotional event!



Kinda cool when your bosster lands right side up!

And now a couple demo rockets!

A Semroc Centurion with a Semroc Booster-16 for a two stage flight. That neat little booster uses an Estes A10-0T motor that is pretty hard to find now. We found a site online that had what may have been the last lot and bought all that they had left. Glad we did because it's a cool little booster stage.

Here is our Estes Outlander. Another very cool rocket that takes a while to build. Lots of parts! It had an awesome flight and actually landed perfectly on its legs that flex. Unfortunately, we were nervous because of posts online saying that it was unstable, so I didn't film it. I was too busy watching it carefully. It would have made a great video. Well, we like the kit and ours flies very stable so we are pretty happy.

Another favorite is the 36 D Squared. It gets its name from its length of 36 inches and its cluster of two D sized motors. We flew it on two D12-5 motors for this flight. Another perfect flight. This is the tree hugging rocket that landed outside the park and Diane found it after the launch. Thanks again!

the Mean Yankee is a real fun rocket to launch. It is 6 feet 7 inches tall and we flew it on an E9-6 motor. that was the largest motor of the day (It is about equal to eight of the motors that the students' Estes Loadstars flew on) . We have a blog entries at http://roborocketry.blogspot.com/2008/01/stars-and-stripes-rocket.html and http://roborocketry.blogspot.com/2008/01/mean-yankee-rocket-completed.html that talk about building this rocket and painting the stars and stripes on it.

You can also find some prior launch videos at http://www.youtube.com/Roborocketry. Just look for the "Mean Yankee" and "Orange Twist" videos there.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and posts. I will have to do one more short post on the SARA Desert Heat 2009 launch and then I will be back to building and documenting some more of our Roborocketry projects.

Thanks goes out to Mrs. Jahan the students' teacher and Mr. Ercan Aydogdu their principal for their support, those who donated funds to help purchase the rocket kits, and the parents who helped building, painting, chasing and cleaning up after the rockets!

Thank you!