Boy Scout demo

It currently looks like it will be a PML Bullpuppy on a G80. That appears to be what is readilly availible and will take us to about 950 ft according to rocksim. This should be a cool flight for them, but will it be recovered or will it decorate a tree. My money is on the tree.

Boy Scout demo flight

I'm looking into putting on a demo flight for the boy scouts at their summer camp. I go up there each week anyway to give amateur radio exams, if I can get a rocket that will fly there and be impressive to the camp I will put on a show. They are flying estes on A motors I'm looking into a G-75 or G80 on a 2" or 3" airframe. It depends what I can get short notice. I am targeting 700 - 1000 ft to keep it a safe flight, but not to high since it will likely get caught in a tree anyway.

NASA succeded in launching Discovery

This afternoon Discovery safely reached Earth orbit, after two scrubbed launch attempts. NASA needed this, the public was watching and hoping that they got this right. They still have to succesfully complete their mission and return to Earth safely but I think they are on the right track. If they had had a disaster on this flight I'm sure the SST would be scrapped immediatly and not finish the ISS missions they have planned before retiring the SST.

Asterisk PBX

I know this isn't rocketry related, but I have been working on it since my DSL started working a couple weeks ago. I now have several voip lines terminating into a Shuttle PC running Fedora Core 2 and the Asterisk open source PBX. I just received the device today (SPA-3000) that will alow me to connect my copper line to the PBX along with a traditional analog phone. Once that is working I need to step back and actually plan my setup. It is just pieced together right now, just adding code to test a particular function and leaving it in a rough but usable state. I'll post more on this as it takes shape.

NASA says they are go for today

NASA has stated that they are go for launch, and will comence countdown today. Once again I wish them Good Luck, and God Speed.

NASA Scrubbing July launch altogether?

NASA officials found a crack in the foam on the External tank overnight. Yet another excuse to postpone the flight indefinately. OK Some slips are inevitable, but NASA couldn't keep a schedule if their life depended on it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for scientific exploration of space. I even work in the commercial space industry. NASA just doesn't have a clue. I hope they determine this is fixable and can make a launch tomorrow. The American public is loosing what little confidence they had in their space agency.
Here is a link to the Forbes story. http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2006/07/03/ap2855977.html


To the crew off astronauts on this mission Good Luck and God Speed. To NASA please get this one right.

NASA Scrubbs for 2nd day in a row

NASA announced today that they are again scrubbing the launch of Discovery this time until at least Tuesday. My brother was down in Florida this weekend intending to watch the launch, but I guess that is not going to happen since he has to be back to work early in the week. Just proves that you cannot plan trips around a NASA launch, they will scrubb if you do.

I don't thnk it's supposed to do that

This is an old picture from a CATO launch in Cobleskil NY last June. This 1/4 scale Patriot Missile burst the forward closure on the motor.

Flood waters receding

It's bright and sunny today and the rivers are mostly back in their banks. As of this morning there were many bridges listed as "Gone" on the traffic reports. There are also many roads that washed out. There is even a section of I-88 in NY just north of here that the road bed wased away in both directions. This is going to take some time to clean up. I hope things are running again after the holiday weekend.

Trebuchet project

I have recently decided to build a Trebuchet. What is a Trebuchet you ask. It is a medevil seige engine, similar to a catapult. The difference between it and the catapult is the Trebuchet uses gravity on a counterweight to propel the projectile. I have attained a Trebuchet simulator from http://www.trebuchet.com and I will start engineering a tabletop model in the near future. Pics will come once a prototype is built.
The end goal is to enter in a pumpkin chunking competition, and see how far it can throw a 6 pound pumpkin.
I got the idea from watching a video put together by LIARS a rocket club in Long Island.
More to come.

Major Flooding

The rain that affected us at NERRF has not stopped and is causing major flooding today. The Lackawaxen River is 5 feet above flood stage now and rising. The Deleware is expected to rise to a record level later today shattering a flood way back in 1955.
I'm still high and dry, however the road in to work closed due to flooding just as I was leaving this morning.