User Panel
Posted: 6/18/2017 4:02:52 PM EDT
People, I'm at a teaching conference for model rocketry, held by NASA at their Wallops Island Flight Facility. I just saw the Blue Angels take off from the base (there's an A-10 here as well - who let the AF in?!?).
I'll post pics of this experience over the next 5 days - lots of history was made here. Subscribe and watch! |
|
Quoted:
http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah268/nhorianopoulos/IMG_5533_zpsbhfb8ckb.jpg NASA has a Sherpa, for what purpose I do not know. View Quote |
|
|
Ha, I'm in a hotel on Assateague, we're going over to the visitor's center tomorrow morning. Was hoping to see the launch tomorrow night, but no dice.
|
|
|
|
|
I used to build stuff that launched from Wallops. Fun times.
|
|
|
Tired. Long day of missed air travel due to weather problems. Staying in the shittiest Red Roof in Jersey, going to bed now. Many more to post.
|
|
|
|
|
A facebooked video of the launch, go to 12:29 seconds for the countdown. Whoever shot this did a better job than the official NASA photography team.
https://www.facebook.com/NASAWFF/videos/1698758656820895/ My version: RockOn Terrier Improved Orion Launch |
|
Still have more to post - just toured Battleship U.S.S. New Jersey and walked through downtown Camden, N.J. to take public transportation to the airport. It was a pretty crummy neighborhood and I would have called for a Lyft car and I f there hadn't been literally 1-2 cops constantly in sight over all 20 blocks I walked.
I made the train, getting charged only a dollar. I took a look at the ticket when I got onboard... Senior Citizen discount. Fucking Millennials. |
|
|
There was aircrew from an MH-60 Seahawk serving as SAR (Search And Rescue), I think they were covering the Western Atlantic for the F-35 project, which was being tested over the ocean, at least according to WFF's TV channel. The T-Bolt II was not flying out of WFF, it was flying from somewhere else.
|
|
|
Quoted:
Photo of the Assembly Facility's director, Rob, explaining how the rockets are placed upon this machine which subjects them to a variety of vibrations, from just a few hertz to 2000 hertz The amplifier required to produce the low frequency noise is 190,000 watts, and requires workers to wear hearing protection. There are 3 such machines, one for each axis. These rockets are fin and spin-stabilized; they rotate at radial velocities that vary from 3 revolutions per second to 5 revolutions per second. I will upload a video of the launch - they really leap off the pad. The booster rockets are former air-defense artillery missile motors, now deactivated by DOD, and sold for their shipping cost to NASA for science research. It has been this way since the end of WWII. http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah268/nhorianopoulos/IMG_5518_zps4wgqd8cc.jpg View Quote Is that a Ling-Timco-Vought transducer? I built a vacuum tube 10 KW driver for one during graduate school back in the early '60s. It was awesome to play with, vibrating devices until they self-destricted. |
|
|
|
Quoted:
Interesting conference. Good to see such hands-on interest in rocketry these days. Thanks for posting. Is that a Ling-Timco-Vought transducer? I built a vacuum tube 10 KW driver for one during graduate school back in the early '60s. It was awesome to play with, vibrating devices until they self-destricted. View Quote Here's a Space Electronics Moment-Of-Inertia "spinner," this machine tells you the exact center of gravity of a completed rocket or payload or anything you want to put on it. It runs on an nitrogen-bearing and is incredibly expensive. It was recently rebuilt with digital components; the update was a couple-hundred thousand bucks, and a new unit would run $700,000. |
|
On the last day at Wallops Island, the class got to tour the Orbital ATK facility on the island at the launch facility, seeing the Antares with its new RD-181 Russian booster engines. They recently had a failure on the old engines (A-26), which crashed the bird near the pad. The new RD-181 engines are far more powerful. In order to attend the tour, we had to remove every piece of electronics from our pockets, including key-fobs, so I got no pictures inside. One was taken by the Orbital ATK staff with the class and I will post it here when I get access to it.
The Antares is HUGE. Launches of the two birds I saw are in September and January. |
|
|
Nice pics, thanks!
Never got to go to Wallops, despite the time I spent on the Shore. |
|
Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. One new winner* is announced every week!
You will receive an email every Friday morning featuring the latest chatter from the hottest topics, breaking news surrounding legislation, as well as exclusive deals only available to ARFCOM email subscribers.
AR15.COM is the world's largest firearm community and is a gathering place for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
From hunters and military members, to competition shooters and general firearm enthusiasts, we welcome anyone who values and respects the way of the firearm.
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more.
Copyright © 1996-2024 AR15.COM LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.
AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own.