Kimbo-V

Launch Date:  20 January 2001 Highlights:  Validated simplified vehicle design.  100% successful recovery.   Click here to view more pictures of the Kimbo-V launch. For additional details on the flight, check out the Launch Summary that was sent to members of the Kimbo-V team.

The Kimbo-V represents the latest in a series of evolving liquid launch vehicles.  Like all the previous Kimbo vehicles, it employed liquid Oxygen and ethanol as propellants, which fed the same 500 lbf pintle-injector engine.  However, to improve the vehicle's initial thrust-to-weight ratio, air frame designer Chris Thompson reduced the diameter of the vehicle from 12 to 10 inches and the number of longerons from four to three.  Additionally, the on-board GHe pressurization system has been eliminated (at least for the current vehicle configuration).  Another subsystem that saw substantial modification was that for recovery.  John Engberg applied lessons learned from Kimbo-III and -IV to develop a two-parachute system that resulted in 100% recovery of all the hardware.  The vehicle could easily be flown again by just inserting a new ablative liner in the engine chamber.  However, the team has instead elected to transform it into a design model.