LUNAR Launch Photos and Video

Pre-2001 2001 2002 2003 2004 SpaceshipOne 2005 2006

2005a 2005b 2005c 2005d 2005e

LUNAR Launches 2005d

This photo gallery contains pictures and video submitted by LUNAR members. The pictures were taken at different launches. We have identified the launch where possible, however, by the time the pictures get to this website, the photographers are often a little hazy as to exactly which launch they took the pictures. I can usually figure out the year the picture was taken so that seems to be the safest organization for this list. Clicking on a picture will display the full size one.

May 7, 2005 - Snow Ranch

This is one launch I never expected to happen. Normally, by May, the grass is too dry to safely fly rockets. Only occasionally does it stay green this late. The other thing that was amazing about this launch was the weather report. We had four days of rain and wind, one day of sunshine, and then two more days of rain and wind. The one day of sunshine was our launch day. Go figure.


As you can see, the day was beautiful; only a few scattered clouds, no rain, no wind, and green grass.


The grass was so deep at the high-powered pads that we had a hard time seeing which pads had rockets on them (picture by Jim Norton).	Mark Annis had to hike out into the tall grass to find one of his rockets. Note the shovel for dealing with fanged visitors. This is about the height of rattlesnake season so everyone had to watch where they put their hands and feet. Luckily, none showed up (that we know about).


Setting up at the high-power pads.	Discussing some of the finer points of fishing, err rocketry with the world's number two expert on Pinata rockets.

Some of our younger members hopped in the creek when things got a little warm. They spent their time checking out all the critters found in the water.


We had at least four SpaceshipOne models fly today.	Mine was the first to fly.	And promptly went unstable, making several loops before slamming into the ground.


All the others did the same thing. Jim Norton caught one still on the launch wire, the only stable part of its flight.


Next, I flew my SpaceNeedle on a 13mm B. The SpaceNeedle has the dubious distinction of never having had a successful flight. You would expect such an inherently stable design to have no trouble flying, and that's true. It does not have trouble flying. It has trouble getting down in one piece.	It has had the engine burn off the fin can just above the fins, the shock cord has been burned off or broken several times (it even broke a kevlar shock cord), the parachute has been stuck inside or melted. Jim Norton caught it on the way up.	This time it did stay in one piece, all the way into the ground. It is still in one piece, it is just bent a little. OK, it is bent a lot but it will fly, err, crash again.

What launch would be complete without Tony Cooper and his Pinata rocket. Like last month, the Pinata rockets are filled with Easter eggs that are filled with candy. Each egg has its own little parachute. This time, one of the eggs is special. It contains a video camera and transmitter. Unfortunately, several of the eggs, including the camera egg got tangled in the shock cord making the video largely useless.

Martin Hall got a nice video of the Pinata flight including all the excitement as the kids chased the eggs.

Pinata Video (3MB)


This is a beautiful rocket to see fly.


Here I caught a two stage launch, in flight, and just after staging. It turns out this is Aaron's Estes LoadStar going up on a C6-0 to a B6-4.



Tony cooper showed up with this Big Thing. First is Tony trying to figure out how to weigh it on the scales (sorry about the picture but my camera lanyard got in the way.) Jim Norton got a better picture of it on the ground. Even though it was huge, it had a perfect flight.

Martin Hall took a bunch of videos of different launches, including his own.

unid-mid-1.mov Aaron's LOC/Precision Starburst going up on two E9-6s.

fatboy-low.mov

blackbrant-high.mov Bob Holmblad's PML Black Brant VB kit flown on an AT RMS H180.

unid-mid-2.mov

unid-low-1.mov

estes-outlander-1.mov

bigorangeblackhigh.mov

outlander-2.mov Nathan Hall's Outlander.

onyx-mid.mov Martin Hall's Onyx

precision-mid.mov

unid-high-4.mov

callisto-mid.mov Martin Hall's Callisto.

pinata.mov Tony Cooper's Pinata rockets.

onyx-launch2.mov Martin Hall's Onyx.

unid-2stage.mov

unid-high-2.mov David Takimoto-Weerts Level 1 Cert flight. "Orange Crush" on an AT H128 reload.

Jim Norton has a collage of pictures from the launch on the web at: http://members.aol.com/jimn469897/505p1.html

George Wagner has a Video Rocketry video. Not bad for his first try. http://www.wagnerg.com/hobbies/temp/PhobosCamera01.wmv

David Takemoto-Weerts made his level 1 cert flight with his scratch built Orange Crush on a H128. Finding a small rocket in tall grass. A real achievement at this launch.

For the second month in a row, Richard Hagen broke his Firestorm. This month's crash was very entertaining as described by Richard.

I was happy to provide some entertainment with the Firestorm launch. Have to agree that the multi-colored panels from the shredded Skyangle chute were quite lovely as they drifted off to the East over the mile long debris field. Definitive failure analysis may not be possible unless the cows find more parts during the off season, but a few things are clear. The early main deployment was not initiated by BP, the new Kevlar cord is unmarked by powder burn. The zipper on the main chute tube indicates that the main came out the rear of it's compartment which is impossible unless something bad happened to the rear of the airframe.

Here is a shot of Bob Holmblad's successful L2 certification with a LOC Big Nuke (Superman) on a J350.

I think this was the SLI team from Elk Grove packing up to go home. The Marino family discussing some of the finer points of rocketry before heading home.

NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI)

Congratulations to the Laguna Creek high school rocketry team who took first place in NASA's Student Launch Initiative for 2004-2005. The team, which has been flying with LUNAR for the last few months missed their target altitude of one mile by only 38 feet. The SLI contest is a much more rigorous competition than the TARC competition. Students must design a research project, make a proposal, get the proposal funded, carry out the research, and submit a final report. The winning team was written up in the Elk Grove Citizen newspaper in the May 12, 2005 edition. Information about the SLI is available on the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center website.

May 21, 2005 - Robertson Park

Jon Dart made it to the May 21 launch in Livermore and, luckily, took some pictures I can show you here.





If anyone can identify these I will put in the descriptions.

All images on this page by William Orvis unless otherwise labeled.

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David Takemoto-Weerts made his level 1 cert flight with his scratch built Orange Crush on a H128.	Finding a small rocket in tall grass. A real achievement at this launch.

For the second month in a row, Richard Hagen broke his Firestorm. This month's crash was very entertaining as described by Richard. I was happy to provide some entertainment with the Firestorm launch. Have to agree that the multi-colored panels from the shredded Skyangle chute were quite lovely as they drifted off to the East over the mile long debris field. Definitive failure analysis may not be possible unless the cows find more parts during the off season, but a few things are clear. The early main deployment was not initiated by BP, the new Kevlar cord is unmarked by powder burn. The zipper on the main chute tube indicates that the main came out the rear of it's compartment which is impossible unless something bad happened to the rear of the airframe.


I think this was the SLI team from Elk Grove packing up to go home.	The Marino family discussing some of the finer points of rocketry before heading home.