Telstar Test Launch

I was really missing the throaty roar of a G40 engine, so I had to go out and set one off.

Why the longing? During the rainy season, the highly-anticipated high-power LUNAR launches at Snow Ranch were cancelled, and so I have had a hankering for something bigger than what they allow at Livermore. Hopefully in April I will send my Thug up on an I or J motor and finally put my L1 Cert to good use (That will shred the rocket at supersonic speeds, which is the whole point =).

So the Telstar launch went off without a hitch. Some kids from the neighborhood got big eyes. But the winds up high were a bit stronger than we experienced with the prior two-stage rocket cam launch (once again trying to capture a rocket launch from a skyward rocket cam, and losing the rocket cam in the process).

So upon parachute reentry, this Telstar Gi-Force rocket drifted a bit off course and perched 30 feet up in a neighbor’s tree canopy. After a brief reconnoiter and tree climb, the rocket was safely recovered to fly again.