Randy's Rocketry Blog 
Randy's Rocketry Blog Posts
The Largest Solid Rocket Motors Ever Flown (2008-09-22)
This is just one of the many cool images from a book titled Nasa: Visions Of Space. A book that combines two of my favorite things; Art and Rocketry. Painted by Maria Epes as part of the Nasa Arts ... [Read More]
New Motor, Finished Bulkhead (2009-10-11)I finished the bulkhead. I varied from the drawing a bit by adding a pressure port so that I can measure the chamber pressure during testing. I need to order some o-rings and then I'll be able to ... [Read More]
2.375" Motor Update (2009-10-20)I've been talking with Magnus from AIR recently about this motor and he has convinced me to use erythitol based propellant. I first heard about erythitol on Scott Fintel's site and the biggest ... [Read More]
2.375" Motor (2009-11-29)Well November went by and I didn't get much done on the new motor. I did do a little testing with Erythritol based propellant. My first attempt was a little surprising given the fact that others have ... [Read More]
Launch update (2010-07-13)Change of plans. Once I started looking into what actually had to be done to prep the camera rocket for this weekends launch, I realized that there was actually more to do than I had anticipated. ... [Read More]
JPL (2011-02-10)I ran a half marathon this past weekend which wouldn't normally have anything to do with rocketry. This race however was in Pasadena, CA and about halfway through the race I realized that I was ... [Read More]
Goddard Prototype? (2011-11-15)I saw this on ebay this morning. The seller suggests that this is an early regen engine prototype that came out of Robert Goddard's workshop. That would be cool! The seller ... [Read More]
SStS casing part three (2012-03-27)Unfortunately the existing casing for the latest motor, a single-burn boiler plate motor, was accidentally damaged prior to testing, so I'm fabricating a new one. Nothing new; cut to ... [Read More]
First Launch (2012-05-07)I was out at the FAR site helping out with a SStS static firing and took my son along. It was his first time to the site and I think he loved it. I certainly did. I had a lot ... [Read More]
SStS, CSD UPDATE (2013-02-28)Chamber Separation Disk (CSD) in the Mid-Bulkhead I completed the modifications to the MBH ,CSD, and plug recently. The entire DSS TM-1-2 test motor is ... [Read More]
TR-1 ROCKET MOTOR UPDATE (2013-05-13)It been almost exactly one year since I started this motor...far too long. SStS has been going very slowly and in spite of some recent progress, I suspect that the the way forward ... [Read More]
Unrestricted Motor (2014-09-05)I wrote this a long time ago and just noticed it sitting in the post section as a draft. This launch was ten years ago in the spring of 2004 and apparently I was thinking about boosted darts ... [Read More]
Dextrose (2014-09-10)The Dextrose from Lucky Vitamin has arrived. I want to do a little testing with it since I don't have a lot of experience with Dextrose. At least not nearly as much as with Sorbitol ... [Read More]
TR-1 Cato (2014-09-22)Theo and I tested the TR-1 motor on Saturday and unfortunately suffered a cato. It was an impressive sounding motor for that first few milliseconds though. Apparently I should ... [Read More]
Dextrose Testing (2014-09-29)So the TR-1 didn't go the way that I had hoped but it wasn't all bad. It reinforced the idea that making even a small change to your plan should be very carefully considered. A ... [Read More]
Dextrose (2014-10-18)I suspect that the switch from sorbitol to dextrose based propellant was the reason the TR-1 motor experienced a cato. More specifically the fact that most Dextrose is the monohydrate form ... [Read More]
Propellant testing (Dextrose, Sorbitol, Erythritol) (2014-10-24)I've had a hard time finding time to post, but the good news is that I have been finding little bits of time here and there to continue working on rocket stuff. I went through and organized my ... [Read More]
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