Tom Rouse has successful two-stage flight to over 90,000 feet!
Tom Rouse flew the TelemetryPro tracking system to over 90,000 feet in his two-stage rocket at the BALLS-23 launch held at the Black Rock desert in Nevada on Sept. 19, 2014. It was an outstanding flight! It reached Mach 3.23. This is the highest velocity the TelemetryPro system has flown to date. The flight was successfully tracked all the way up and down and then safely recovered 2.4 miles away.
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Rocket Name: "Anniversary Special"
Booster motors: Three N2400 research motors Sustainer motor: One N2400 research motor Max altitude: 90,476 feet (above ground level) Max velocity: 3.23 Mach Max acceleration: 13.4 G's Landing site: 2.4 miles from the launch pad Total flight time: 10 minutes, 51 seconds |
Press play to listen to Kate's commentary generated (in real time) during this flight. |
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Launch photos courtesy James Donald
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Google Earth
Flight Trajectory This image shows the flight trajectory recorded by TelemetryPro during the flight. This was an exceptionally vertical and very straight flight! Even the descent was virtually straight down from 90,000 feet to 40,000 feet. Below 40,000 feet it was in enough wind to drift it a couple miles to the west.
Download
Download the Google Earth file to see a nice virtual 3D view of the entire flight from any angle.
Note: You will need to have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the file. |
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Flight Summary Report
The first two pages from the flight summary report are shown in these images. Click on them to get a closer look.
The complete flight summary report can be downloaded using the button below. 
Flight Summary Report
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Note: This flight exceeded the maximum velocity limit for the GPS. (500 m/s or 1640 feet/sec.) Consequently, the GPS suspended the velocity readings and did not resume reporting velocities again until the actual velocity dropped back down below the limit. The TelemetryPro system has an accelerometer onboard and therefore can measure and report velocities higher than the GPS limit. The accelerometer reported the max velocity to be 3262 feet/sec.