Rockets Red Glare (Part II)

To make a rocket uber-complex, just add a second stage. A two stage means that after the first rocket fires, then a separation "event" occurs where the first stage will parachute down and the second rocket will fire, pushing the rocket higher.

One particular two stage rocket made quite an impact.

Ready for liftoff









Liftoff



























The "event" separation and parachute of the first stage...












...however, something went wrong. The second stage didn't fire. I lost the second stage while looking in my viewfinder, people began to yell "HEADS UP!!!", "LOOK OUT!!!", they were running around and trying to get the attention of everyone. I didn't see where the rocket went until people started running towards the parking lot.





The surprising part was that they congregrated around the front of our car. Vero and Benjamin were sitting inside of the car, and she opened the door to see what all the excitement was about.










Amazingly, the rocket slammed into the dirt just inches in front of our car. Vero said she felt a thump, but wasn't sure where it came from.

Everyone kept speculating if the rocket would have pierced the hood, or worse yet, the roof where Vero and Benjamin were sitting. We're thankful that we didn't find out.

Here, the owner of the rocket is inspecting the damage.













The impact sheered off the top portion that held the electronics board.















He couldn't pull it out, someone happen to have a shovel to dig it out.


















The tip of the rocket was about 10 inches and had a nice point to it. If it had drifted a few more inches towards the car, we could have had an interesting hood ornament sticking out it. I could only imagine explaining this to the insurance adjuster.

The owner said that it was a total loss, nothing could be salvaged.

In Part III, you'll see pictures of some cool rockets being launched...