Updates! (Patreon)

First, and perhaps most exciting is the launch of the Falcon Heavy model! The rocket launched about a week ago, and a good portion of the vehicle worked! There were some problems in the center core, just like SpaceX, but I'm very excited to get everything working again for the next launch! Right now, that's scheduled for early 2019. 

Launch video: https://youtu.be/QQt-9SSJ51c

Details: https://bps.space/falcon-heavy

The FH model ate up a TON of time. It's incredibly complicated to launch, and I'm looking forward to working on some simpler rockets for a bit. The good news is we've got more landing tests coming up this December! Hoping for at least two good drop tests. I've got software updates in work for both of those. We should be getting preeeeetttty close with these next tests. I'm hoping for <1.5m AGL at burnout with almost no horizontal velocity. Keep your fingers crossed...

Lastly, the elephant in the room is Landing Model Rockets episode 3. It was going to cover landing legs, but the more I test the current legs and try to put together an episode, the more I realize serious engineering work is needed on them. For that reason, I'm changing episode 3 to flight computer design! I'm thinking we'll need 1-3 episodes covering this topic. We'll start by picking out parts, then move on to PCB design. Pushing hard to get that video out by this Friday!

Something I'm really excited about is that we'll actually be building two identically functioning flight computers! One of them will be a small PCB with lots of soldering experience required to make it. The other will be easy for most makers and rocketeers to assemble. It'll consist of a few basic breakouts and will be simple to solder together! 

That's all for now - thanks for tuning in, and thanks for your support!

Blue skies and low winds,

Joe