Launch N-2 rocket
The day has come. We finally launched the N-2 rocket we developed.
Preparations continued until late the night before the launch day. It was already past 8 PM when the team left the building.
This time three rockets were launched as the N-2 rocket family. They are named Tana, Galana, and Perkerra, respectively. These were named after rivers in Kenya.
The following are some of the positive aspects of this launch.
- Worked with KSA to launch three N-2 rockets
- The solid rocket motors worked well. It was especially good to discover a technique for bending the edge of the combustion chamber with a hammer in the field.
- Telemetry allowed us to downlink sensor data and camera images to the ground station
- ESP32 reset problem was encountered in the field, but was troubleshooted by the avionics team
- Pyrotechnic (crimson powder) worked and the parachute was released
- Launch sequence was created and the team complied with it
- Perkerra flew stable and achieved maximum apogee among three rockets
- Airframe accommodated all the subsystems without failure
On the other hand, areas for improvement are as follows
- Management issue
- Development timeline
- Avoid last minute work
- Technical issue
- Recovery system must be seriously prioritized
- Entire rocket subsystems have to be redesigned for smooth assembly
- Add internal memory to store the logging data
- Launch pad needs to be paid attention as it is crucial
We had a post-flight meeting to discuss the way forward.
The internship which will begin next January will focus on improving organizational issues as a top priority.