These pictures are from my trip out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada with Steve Marshall to check out BALLS 2004 - the mother of all experimental rocket launches. We flew into Reno on September 9th, stayed overnight in a hotel, and got up early to pick up the RV and drive up to the desert. We arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon, in time to witness a couple of commercial launches (K impulse class and above only), allowed only during the setup of the event. After getting our badges we roamed the line to check out all the awesome projects.
The big projects to look forward to included:
- The Community Space Program's 100% scale model of an Honest John missile launched on 4 O motors. In its original form, designed to lob a nuke unguided up to 60,000 feet away. Unfortunately, this one blew up just off the pad.
- Wedge Oldham's 107% model of the Black Brant II, fired on 3 P motors. Amazing looking rocket! Partially successful flight, having some problems in flight that did a number on it.
- Jeff Jakob's R 10,000 Hybrid project. We were all looking forward to this 60,000+ ft flight, but unfortunately it also exploded into tiny pieces on the pad.
- A large copper rocket called "More Bad Wiring" from a Utah group. I don't know whether it was the wiring or something else, but it didn't make it down alive either.
- Mike Hobbs and Frank Kosdon flew a gorgeous Q-class project that was fairly successful. One of the best flights of the day.
- The people parked next to us flew the Son of Old Yeller, a beautiful black and yellow rocket. It made it off the pad but lost some fins during flight. An early chute deployment also caused some major damage.
All in all, only a couple of the big projects made it into the air. It gave me a new appreciation for how much effort NASA must put into their flights. Even NASA can be plagued with failed chute deployments, explosions on the pad, and similar problems that rocketeers experienced this weekend. I applaud the individuals and groups that made the leap to challenge themselves with the big stuff, despite the final outcome.
More good pictures and videos of BALLS 13 here.
Now, on to the pictures!
