L1 Rocket

This is the rocket that got me my Level 1 certification in May 2021. It is about 2” diameter, about 8’ long, and around 5lbs. I call it Scrapheap because it was mostly built out of parts I found laying around unused in my rocket team’s workshop. Most of its length is empty tube, I just wanted to make a really long rocket.

Related posts: On my rocket team I also lead the propulsion subteam, and captained the team.

I designed it in OpenRocket (design/simulation software), cut the fiberglass body tubes to size, epoxied on the plywood fins, machined a metal coupler, laser cut various internal plywood parts, set up the recovery system with proper parachutes and shock cord, and programmed the settings for the onboard electronics.

This was my first foray into rocketry. It had two altimeters and two parachutes. Looking back now, the name “Scrapheap” is even more applicable because of how awful the build quality was, but I didn’t know that at the time..

It flew once, to about 900’, and had a perfect flight in spite of a very rushed launch day. Launch video below.