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R2K's High Power Rocketry Blog 
High Power Rocketry Posts
Dryden Video Collection (2006-04-13)
The Dryden Flight Research Center has some great videos of aircraft testing. The best is the impact test shown above. Impact Dryden Videos [Read More]
Aerospike Engine (2007-10-21)A high power type Aerospike motor - basically an inverted bell where the flame is built around a graphite spike. Very nice! I bet hobby motors could use this technology. This is the big kind - ... [Read More]
Testing a hybrid motor with a spike nozzle. (2008-10-29)This is a great project. The hybrid motor uses a solid fuel and a gaseous or liquid oxidizer. Here the fuel is a clear acrylic tube that lets you see inside the chamber. Note how bright it is: the ... [Read More]
Project NOTS EV-1 (NOTSNIK) (2009-05-10)This is, above all others, the sister rocket to my personal favorite; Project Farside. But in NOTS EV-1 launches, the complex but rather small rocket (again very similar) is lofted to modest altitude ... [Read More]
2009: The year of the motor! (2009-05-29)A huge set of new motors is on the way down the pipeline at the very moment. Most of them come from Cesaroni , but Aerotech also just announced three end burner motors (one with an extra grain of ... [Read More]
Ares X-1 Assembly (2009-08-06)This simple test rocket, in a way the biggest hobby launch ever, will be an early test of a man-rated rocket. Why is this a great rocket in my mind? Because it uses an inexpensive and fairly ... [Read More]
Inflatable Heat Sheilds (Just in time for 2010) (2009-08-18)Perhaps the best way to land very large objects on Mars with any kind of efficiency. Now why are there not tons of cool projects like this going on at all times? Why is it that we only try a ... [Read More]
Operation Credible Sport (2009-12-16)"Top secret Iran hostage rescue mission aircraft YMC-130H were three modified Lockheed Hercules Aircraft for Top Secret "Operation Credible Sport", for second Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt. One ... [Read More]
Operation Teapot (2010-01-01)Hmm where do I post about nuclear weapons? This is as good a spot as any. Most of the tests in this video are smaller, tactical (or primary) scale explosives. The power of even these small blasts, ... [Read More]
Project HyShot - Ramjet research (2010-01-08)"The Mission begins with the rockets pointing to the sky in a near vertical position. The payload is shrouded beneath a nose cone to protect it during the ascent through the atmosphere. If suitable ... [Read More]
Project Cannikin - a multi - megaton underground test in Alaska (2010-01-13)"The largest underground nuclear test conducted by the United States, Project Cannikin was one of three underground nuclear tests performed at different places on this 43-mile long island in the ... [Read More]
Some recent searches to this page (2010-04-30)ikaros light sail high-power low-energy-consumption rocket (sounds very cool!) 100 meter telescope convert phantom 4000 to aerotech (where did you get this Phantom 4000?!?) sounding ... [Read More]
N prize team profiles (2010-05-02)This is an update from the N prize blog. With about 500 days left, this looks like a good time to quickly describe the plans of some notable participating teams. In some cases, information is not ... [Read More]
IR footage from ballistic missile (2010-07-24)"Thermoteknix MIRICLE TB2-30 Thermal Camera footage on board Ballistic Missile Defense during BMD testing. Ends abruptly with Missile Intercept." Experience this video in a more trippy format if you ... [Read More]
Rexus 1 - Student built sounding rocket (2010-07-30)I came across this project quite by accident, showing that there are indeed many areas on the internet that remain to be explored. Even after browsing for rocketry web pages since the late 90s! "The ... [Read More]
Two new books (pt. 2) (2010-09-11)The science library grows ever larger: Under The Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing "In the 1950s and 1960s, over 100 aboveground atomic bombs were exploded in the Nevada desert. Miller gives us ... [Read More]
Inventing death: Interview with a (maybe) CIA weapons designer (2010-09-23)The following is a playboy article By Laurence Gonzilles. There are plenty of reasons to wonder if this information is factual, but it does contain a discussion of some relevant ballistics ... [Read More]
TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit (2010-11-01)http://interorbital.com/TubeSat_1.htm "Planet Earth has entered the age of the Personal Satellite with the introduction of Interorbital's TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit. The new IOS TubeSat PS ... [Read More]
Giant 'chute (2011-01-15)"The team developing the landing system for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory tested the deployment of an early parachute design in mid-October 2007 inside the world's largest wind tunnel, at NASA Ames ... [Read More]
Blasting MMO with heat to test near-Sun performance (2011-01-19)BepiColombo's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) in the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC, The Netherlands. The octagonal spacecraft is Japan?s contribution to BepiColombo and will explore Mercury's ... [Read More]
First Orion Capsule (2011-02-12)"The Lockheed Martin Orion team at NASA?s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., inspects the first Orion crew module known as the Ground Test Article (GTA) prior to shipping to Lockheed ... [Read More]
4 Alcohol - LOX engines tested on one stand! (2011-04-08)"Michael, our biz VP, said at ISDC that we show the good and the bad. Which reminded me that I was planning to share this video when we flew, and we've flown. This is a test on March 30th 2009, the ... [Read More]
Silver Spur3 - Student Rocket (2011-04-09)"It features an all carbon fiber motor case, ablative fin leading edges, and a titanium nose cone tip. Flying on an O5000, it flew to about 50000 ft and reached a maximum speed of about Mach 3.3." ... [Read More]
A "minor" accident? (2011-04-11)Many would have you think the meltdowns are disasters on unprecedented scale, others that they are just minor accidents. One thing is certain; these meltdowns are second only to Chernobyl as the ... [Read More]
Testing of JWST flight mirrors (2011-04-15)http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/images.html Is it rude to suggest that the James Webb Space Telescope makes your telescope, and by association you, look lame? No it isn't. [Read More]
The Russian ABM - Gazelle SH-08/ABM-3 (2011-05-05)"The Gazelle (SH-08/ABM-3), also known by its Russian designation, 53T6, is a short-range, high-acceleration interceptor missile designed and manufactured by the Soviet Union.(1) At present, 68 ... [Read More]
More Schwerer Gustav and Dora images - Railway guns (2011-10-22)High Explosive Weight of projectile: 4.8 t (4,800 kg) Muzzle velocity: 820 m/s Maximum range: 48 km Explosive mass: 700 kg Crater size: 30 ft (10 m) wide 30 ft (10 m) deep. AP Shell The main body ... [Read More]
Are two N motors enough for space? (2011-10-28)It is always shocking to see how much altitude the pros (NASA, NACA, others) have gotten with motors in the M to R range. Yet within our hobby we routinely see R motors fail to break 100,000 feet, ... [Read More]
Sonic testing on soda-can rocket airframe (2011-11-20)Read more at http://nprize.blogspot.com/ [Read More]
Shake table testing of JWST mirrors under various vibration stresses (2011-12-09)"The James Webb Space Telescope will experience intense forces as it launches into space. To ensure that the different parts of the observatory won't suffer damage during this stage of the ... [Read More]
USB pen camera (2012-01-10)This camera was $16 shipped from Ebay. It comes with an 8 gig internal card, and actually works as a pen if you would want to be a spy. The size of the thing, and the fact that it has a bunch of ... [Read More]
Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (2012-03-06)Explosions. [Read More]
VERA: A low cost, low acceleration transonic impact gun (2012-03-18)First seen on The Original Rocket Dungeon. "In the world of ordnance system development the need for system and subsystem testing under dynamic conditions is obvious. A number of approaches have ... [Read More]
Mark-1 space chamber (2012-03-29)Click to see the full res. "Capt. Catercia Isaac checks out the inside of the Mark-1 space chamber Oct. 5, 2009, at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. Capt. Issac is a physicist and the flight ... [Read More]
Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (2012-04-02)"In September of 1959, JPL held a press conference to celebrate the opening of its new hypersonic wind tunnel, the third wind tunnel built at JPL from 1947 to 1959. A JPL engineer is shown ... [Read More]
Project Mercury 1st Quarterly Report Oct-Dec 1959 (2012-04-09)"The first Project Mercury quarterly report covers testing of Mercury spacecraft aerodynamics using models fired by a gun (at over 10,000 mph) and in wind tunnels (mach 14), escape tower tests in ... [Read More]
Just back from DC - The USA Science & Engineering Festival (2012-04-30)I have been away this week at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. This is a giant (ca. 3,000 exhibitor) festival that takes place in the equally giant DC convention center A - C halls. Much ... [Read More]
Testing the new blogger with a rocket image (2012-05-11)It works. [Read More]
MiniCube - $320 to near space (2012-05-30)"The MiniCube is small plastic box five cm on a side. On the base is a standard camera tripod mount. You put your project inside the cube and mails it to JP Aerospace. We carry it to ... [Read More]
Testing the LGM-118A Peacekeeper (2012-07-04)[Read More]
Testing of shuttle nosecone in oven (2012-07-11)[Read More]
N5800 rocket ready for Balls (2012-09-18)This rocket looks mean indeed! The rocket features extra thick CF fins and nosecone, both of which use a high temperature epoxy. Although the fins are surface mounted, without tip to ... [Read More]
Scramjet engine testing (2012-11-01)[Read More]
Full-room radiation mapping device (2012-11-28)SRNL Deploys Innovative Radiation Mapping Device AIKEN, S.C. – The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), EM’s national lab, has made strides with remote technology designed to ... [Read More]
Excalibur lb Environmental Testing (2013-07-29)"With more than 600 rounds fired in theater to date, Excalibur is the revolutionary precision projectile for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps artillery. Using GPS precision guidance technology, ... [Read More]
Testing a flamethrower (2015-03-23)[Read More]
Testing space reactors against various accidents and failure modes (2020-11-30)SNAP and other forms of nuclear reactor, intended for use in space, pose unique engineering and safety challenges. They must be light weight and yet must safely allow for the dangers of rocket ... [Read More]
