Your 'best' launch failures

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Astrofox
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Your 'best' launch failures

Post by Astrofox »

As a Kerbal Space Program fan, I've had my fair share of launch failures in-game. In real life, I have had many upon many failures in my bottle rocketry ventures.
So, this gives rise to the question - what is one of your 'best' launch failures in your attempts in bottle rocketry?

I'll share a very recent (and fairly Kerbal) launch of mine:
On Sept. 11, 2016, I went out to launch a new iteration of a backslider that I was working on. I built it in such a way that the FBC-tube was glued to a cap, which was screwed onto the front bottle segment after transportation and setup of the bottle. When we first attempted, it did not launch, and I had to manually depressurize it. However, the second attempt was a tiny bit more successful: it was pressurized and when we pulled the trigger - it launched, but I heard a popping noise. It was the tube flying off the cap due to aero-stress. Then, as the rocket reached apogee, it backslid and proceeded to plummet straight into the ground - crushing the front end of the rocket. Fortunately, nothing else was lost, and I was able to repair the vehicle.
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Blenderite
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Re: Your 'best' launch failures

Post by Blenderite »

This past week end I learned that PLP 8x can dry rot. I had a impressive explosion at 80psi while checking for leaks. The explosion sent the whole payload section flying and tore the servo solder connections right off. Lesson of the day: Store water rockets indoors.
-Blenderite

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