The Two-Stage Flight (Patreon)

Postart got these awesome shots of the two-stage boost.

The boost was phenomenal, as expected. The M2050X is a monster, and I'll never get tired of them! Taylor's interstage made it through Max Q and kept the sustainer within parameters for second-stage ignition. About one second after burnout, a separation charge dropped away the booster, and to our genuine shock, our sustainer ignition setup ignited the K375 sustainer motor at about 16,000 feet. The booster made it to about 14,000 feet, and we successfully recovered it.

Unfortunately, after the K375 lit, the GPS locked out and we never saw the sustainer again. It's hard to tell exactly what was going on up there, but it looks like it took a bit of a less-than-optimal flight path. It's possible it shredded, the bulkhead retaining the motor failed and sent the case through the rocket, or it could have just been coning excessively.

After several miles of hiking, a ton of miles driving around the roads of FAR and never seeing either GPS or RDF signal again, we called off the search. Unfortunately, it seems like the sustainer failed and came in hot in some way.

While we can't call the flight a complete success, the interstage took the stresses we put it through, we lit the sustainer, and we got the way more expensive half back successfully. Ultimately, we're pretty happy with the outcome overall. It would be lovely to see some data on the total altitude, but our last GPS packet was just before sustainer ignition at around 16,600 feet.