Having learned several valuable lessons from our first flight vehicle, we picked up the pieces and went back to the Bay Area to revise and rebuild. Crazy as it may seem considering that we took over 2 years to build the first vehicle, Mark Blair managed to get us all to commit to flying again in a mere 2 months. And then he guided us and prodded us and … we made it!
We looked at the data that we recovered from the first flight and confirmed that the Recovery system had not armed. This was because of a design flaw - we had used HPR components and they were expecting a more substantial initial spike in thrust to arm properly. Not seeing this spike, the system did NOT arm, so no parachute recovery. In hind sight we realized we had asked if this might cause a problem because of the slower ramp up of acceleration, but had decided it would be “OK”. Bad choice.
We also found that the engine operating pressure wasn’t what we had wanted and so adjustments were made to the pressurization system, plumbing, tanks and engine to handle a higher initial pressure before launch.
In all, we pushed very hard and nearly burnt out some members, but we did get back to the Mojave Test Area in mid April and were ready to try again.
This picture is from the Saturday afternoon (flt 1) effort. Looks a lot like the K.I.S.S. I picture. The winds were calmer this time, as well, which would help. We loaded the propellent, pressurized, and prepared to launch.
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