Plaster Blaster 3

Yesterday my friend Gary and I drove out to Plaster City, a bare plain in the desert east of Ocotillo Wells, for a model rocket enthusiast’s meet. From a distance it looked like a collection of RV’ers hanging out in the desert, but as we got closer we saw a well organized field of launch pads with a variety of rockets from the small store bought variety to 8’ monsters using hybrid motors and requiring a certification to launch.

The launch areas were set up in lines of engine power, with the more powerful rockets further out.

The big attraction of the day was a 1/7th scale model of a Russian Vostok rocket (pictured). This thing is a beast, weighing over 300 pounds, 22 feet tall and powered by 20 high-powered solid-fuel engines. The rocket was partially assembled on site with the large dart shaped boosters added after it was moved into launch position. Equally impressive was the launch sequence, the outer boosters were to fire simultaneously then fall away while the central rockets would ignite in flight, controlled by onboard electronics. Rocketry is unforgiving of complexity so this seemed very ambitious.

We got as close as we cared to, maybe 70 yards, for the launch. The countdown was tense and dramatic. The initial launch was very smooth, the rocket lifted on 16 columns of fire from the boosters and soared maybe 900 feet before two of the four booster sections fell away and the central rockets fired. At apogee the nosecone blew away and all the pieces descended on parachutes. The launch was very successful with all engines firing and only minor damage to the nosecone. The only failure was two of the boosters did not fall away, however the extra weight did not cause any major problems to the flight or recovery. Very cool.

Thanks to Andy and Lisa for inviting us out.

If anyone has good pictures of the launch send them to me and I’ll build a gallery.