December 03, 2003

Another X-prize Vehicle

I am a big fan of the X-prize, which requires a reusable launch vehicle that can go suborbital to be launched twice within a certain time frame. So far, no winners but plenty of interesting developments. Winner gets $10 million, which I don't think is enough, but it has attracted a lot of players anyway. Here is the latest entry into the X-prize, Space Transport Corporation. They have recently flown a three-stage solid rocket booster to 75 Km.

SM Rocketry successfully launched a 3-stage rocket to 72-km altitude on 11/6/03. This rocket was designed to prove out the launch rail system, stage separation, and flight stability. The GPS based Flight Safety System kept the rocket on a direct path out to sea, where the upper stage landed 75-km off the Washington State coastline.

Future launches to 100-km altitude are imminent and include digital high resolution photography from the rocket, and other telemetry devices such as thermocouple vacuum pressure transmitter readings at altitude.

The attached picture shows the first stage smoke trail on the right, the 2nd stage trail has been swirled around by winds and is seen in the middle of the picture, and the 3rd stage trail is on the lower left seen as a streak heading in a westerly direction out to the Pacific.

I like the GPS guided feature. I'd like to know more about exactly what they did there.

Posted by elkaim at December 3, 2003 04:30 PM
Comments

The rocket uses triangle shaped flight limit lines which determine if it is safe to light the next stage. Between stages (coast phase), the rocket slows down below any GPS velocity restriction and is able to provide accurate data. The system is fail safe, such that it will only light if everything is a go (data from GPS is not stale or unavailable, no pending ground abort)

The rocket had to abort when we launched in Nevada last year in May, because it would have gone outside of our 12 mile hazard area.

Haven't been able to launch another one because of weather. Winter time is pretty cloudy/rainy out here.

This little rocket is not critical for our X-prize development and we will be launching a more exciting rocket shortly.. :)

Posted by: Phillip Storm at January 15, 2004 11:08 PM