Kimbo-I

 

Launch Date: 3 May 1998

Highlights: Validated basic vehicle design.

Click here to view more pictures of Kimbo-I.

More details below.

The Kimbo-I was the original "garage" rocket for the Kimbo team, although its origins actually trace back to the White Sands Missile Range. The vehicle was the first to use the 500 lbf LOX-ethanol engine. It's safe to say that Tom Mueller's inputs were crucial to the engine's successful operation.

The vehicle was roughly 13 feet in length and had a maximum diameter of 6 inches. It employed a very simple ullage blow-down system for pressurization. One consequence was that the pitch of the engine burn would shift as the ullage pressures, and thus the engine chamber pressure, decreased. The structure consisted of integrated propellant tanks made from 3/16 inch thick aluminum tubing. There was no instrumentation other than the on-board altimeter used for vehicle recovery.

The Kimbo-I was static fired on 1 February 1998 with a small team consisting of John Garvey, Mark Holthaus and Steve Bartlett. Launch took place on 3 May 1998 on the second day of the Reaction Research Society's Liver Fire '98 at the Mojave Test Area. After riding up Dave Crisalli's 60-foot launch rail, the K-I encountered major winds and pitched downrange due to weathervaning effects. The on-board accel/altimeter device did trigger the recovery system, ejecting the nosecone and single main parachute. However, because of the strong head wind, the parachute lines snagged on the fins and the parachute never fully deployed. The subsequent landing (impact) one mile downrange was a hard one. Since the accel was destroyed and the trajectory data lost, only a rough guess can be made of the vehicle's maximum altitude (one mile?). Fortunately, enough of the core components, including the engine and tanks, survived so that the growing Kimbo team was able to refurbish and upgrade the rocket into the Kimbo-II over the summer.



Last Updated 7/20/2000