The very late report on Nala1’s recent missions…
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio –
Artemis Launch System rocket Nala1 had two spectacular flights a couple months ago.
The July 28th missions proved that the rocket is OK for “tumble recovery” during the first of two recovery events. This involves the rocket separating at apogee, and tumbling in a flat spin until reaching a pre-determined height above the ground (400 feet) to deploy the main parachute for a soft landing.
Both missions were absolutely wonderful, though the second flight (ALS-049) had a slight mishap…operator error on my part. I used a parachute deployment charge that didn’t have enough black powder to fully deploy the parachute. The rocket landed fine with no damage to the rocket. ALS-049 returned some dramatic pictures from its flight, though!
First we have a great shot showing the flame tail whipping around behind the fins…
ALS-049 launch
Since ALS-049 launched during a light drizzle, there was this breath-taking photo as Nala catches a view of a rainbow only visible from 1053 feet in the air…
Mission ALS-049 rainbow
Then there is the cool view of the booster separation at apogee…
ALS-049 apogee
And these series of shots showing the business end of the parachute ejection baffle just after event #2 occurs…
ALS-048 and ALS049 were a great couple of missions!
The next mission(s) is scheduled for October 13th. Nala rocket is ready for two more milestones.
1) The first flight using a CTI rocket motor (I’ve only used Aerotech re-loadable motors on my higher power flights so far…)
2) The next flight also marks a milestone as it will be the 50th launch of the Artemis Launch System. (ALS-050)
More info as the date gets closer!
((( )))