The rocket we build was launched on Oct 23, 2008. It had a lot of surprises in store for us. First of all, our unique model got us the Most Creative Rocket Award. My team( Kevin, Eric, Payton and I) were the third group to launch the rocket. The rocket was shot, it didn’t scale much height, because a strong wind was blowing and it billowed up the exterior parachute. The rocket actually zigzagged all the time it was scaling the height and it came down crashing towards the benches we were sitting on. It was so close to make a vertical landing as it didn’t had much speed. However, after it fell it shot out the wadding. The burning wadding shot out of one end. Jake got hold of the burning wadding. It was hilarious! By that time, two other teams made a great launch and one of them got the award for the Longest Duration. However, we had another engine left. So, we decided to strip off the exterior parachute and get rid of the additional fins too. And then, the magic began.
The C6-5 Engine gave the ’Screaming Jelly’ an unprecedented amount of thrust and the next thing every notices after I make the second launch is that they have to crane their necks really bad and squeeze their eyes to search for the rocket that has scaled a height that couldn’t be imagined. It was a perfect vertical launch. Nothing went wrong. The parachute came up after the rocket reached its apogee and the parachute helped it to remain in air for a long time. While the rocket was on the way down, everyone of us ran towards getting hold of it. Finally, Landon got hold of it.
We were not satiated by that performance. All of our team members were sure that it deserved another launch. However, the C6-5 went out of stock. I had 3 of them for our rocket. I rushed to my dorms to get them and we used the three engines for two other teams as well. The launches were conducted at the rugby field near AC1 and AFROTC Buildings. There was a vast expanse of barren land besides the Rugby Field. The third launch was eventful. Nothing went as expected. However, it was amazing. The launch was a perfect vertical one. So far so good. However, the wadding we had was not good enough. While coming down, the string that attaches the nose and parachute to the main body was burned due to inadequate wadding. We could see a white parachute (though it was yellow and black) with a nose coming down slowly and the main body of the rocket crashing down to the Earth. We went for the parachute. To get hold of that, we almost crossed the whole expanse of the barren land. We got hold of it at the edge of the land. The string was burned out which helped us to confirm that what we thought about the mishap was correct. However, it was a great exercise and I completely loved it.
Our team got the award for the Most Creative Award and though we clocked the longest duration, it was too late for another award. However, we are happy that we put up a good work and everyone of us had a lot of fun. In the end, everyone got some spooky gifts, thanks to Halloween, and lots of chocolates.