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02/11/2023 – Three Oaks, Michigan Launch

The Mattawan Rocket Club is a high school rocket club at Mattawan High School. This season, we launched rockets in different locations, and we did it many times. Our first launch took place at Michiana Rocketry, and we were there for most of the day. The rocket we launched was our team rocket, which we used throughout the season, as it was originally designed with the TARC (The American Rocketry Challenge) in mind. I’m going to be describing our successes and failures in this blog post.

Our Successes

Overall, this first launch of our rocket was successful. The rocket reached optimal altitude, and the egg inside was unharmed. We found no clear weight distribution errors that needed correcting, as the rocket was launched to the sky successfully. The recovery of the rocket was also swift. We identified where the rocket landed due to the reflective markers we tied to the parachute.

Our Failures

While we had great success, we did have some problems. One of the rocket’s fins broke off during landing. The piece was recovered successfully. We learned the fins should be overall stronger to be able to resist any force that would be dealt when landing. Another issue was the parachute. The parachute didn’t deploy properly as there was a tangling issue. The rocket flew down to the ground parachute-less. Luckily, it still survived with only some minor damage (dirt, and the broken fin).

Lessons Learned

During this launch, we learned about the importance of improving our hardware after our mistakes. We are going to use our knowledge next time and improve off our mistakes.

For more info, check out LaunchMattawan.org
Also be sure to check out Michiana Rocketry