Mojave Desert
I stayed a couple days after E3 to attend the SORAC amateur rocket launch.
I have provided some sponsorship to two of the teams competing for the CATS
(Cheap Access to Space) rocketry prize, and it was a nice opportunity to get
out and meet some of the people.
It is interesting how similar the activity is around an experimental rocket
launch, going to a race track with an experimental car, and putting out a
beta version of new software is. Lots of “twenty more minutes!”, and lots
of well-wishers waiting around while the people on the critical path sweat
over what they are doing.
Mere minutes before we absolutely, positively needed to leave to catch our
plane flight, they started the countdown. The rocket launched impressively,
but broke apart at a relatively low altitude. Ouch. It was a hybrid, so
there wasn’t really an explosion, but watching the debris rain down wasn’t
very heartening. Times like that, I definitely appreciate working in
software. “Run it again, with a breakpoint!”
Note to self: pasty-skinned programmers ought not stand out in the Mojave
desert for multiple hours.
http://www.space-frontier.org/Events/CATSPRIZE_1/
http://www.energyrs.com/sorac/sorac.htm
http://www.jpaerospace.com/