We Launched A Rocket This Weekend...

[Timaxe]

I got a call from my dad on Sunday saying that we were in the news. Apparently lots of people noticed Dr. Bernhardt's sounding rocket experiment: noctilucent clouds. I'm only a month into my co-op here, but it's interesting to see how people react to some of the experiments we fly for researchers.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/20/strang ... index.html

Some extra information for TazForum:

EXPERIMENT DESCRIPTION: The Charged Dust Release Experiment (CARE) forms a dust cloud in space to simulate a noctilucent cloud with a Nihka motor igniting on the downleg of a BBXI trajectory and includes an experiment beacon operating at two frequencies. The cloud will be observed from multiple ground sites and a satellite.
TYPE OF ROCKET: Black Brant XI
LAUNCH SITE: NASA Wallops Flight Facility, VA
ACTUAL ALTITUDE: 317 km (Black Brant) and 341 km (Nihka)
ACS SYSTEM: None
EXPERIMENT: Radar, beacon, and optical data obtained from ground sites.

Some photos I took of the launch:

[rapier57]

OK, dude. You are having entirely too much fun. Gimme your boss's phone number. I need to have a talk with him/her/whatever.

[Timaxe]

555-8675 ext. 309

Found some fun videos on YouTube about this launch...I heard that we posted some footage and I've seen some of it, but I can't find it online yet (at least on YouTube).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzOeTtoemc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADUsSz1zBPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb45uBaj2Mc

I wonder if you could do something like the batman spotlight, but with a laser and an advertisement for theTazZone on the next cloud...you can pretty much guarantee that people will see it and talk about it, lol!

[Aspman]

I read teh title and expected some small assed little rocked like a Bonfire night banger.

i.e.

But that thing looks like a fooking SAM!

[SirDice]

Forget SAMs, it's a friggin cruise-missile

Awesome, just awesome...

[Egaladeist]

Very cool stuff Tim

I wonder if you could do something like the batman spotlight, but with a laser and an advertisement for theTazZone on the next cloud...you can pretty much guarantee that people will see it and talk about it, lol!

Yep, yep, yep that'd be even cooler

[Timaxe]

Forget SAMs, it's a friggin cruise-missile

Awesome, just awesome...

Sounding rockets are basically cheap rocket motors, some of which are military surplus motors. With the multi-stage rockets we drop motors and only recover the payloads / nose-cone. It's cool...we had to wait a few days for this rocket to launch because it had to be visible from many sites...and that meant that all of the mid-atlantic / east cost region got a clear view of it too, lol! We're digging up all sorts of conspiracy theories online about this launch...it would be tons of fun to deny any knowledge of this launch to see what other alien theories people come up with

[rapier57]

Links!!!!! We wants links!!!! Share the links to the conspiracy theorists/nuts/wackos you found so we can feed the flames and have a bit of fun.

Oooooooo! Such fun!

[SirDice]

Feed them some BS that the military shot down a terrorist plane but want to keep a lid on it to prevent mass panic