Thank you for your support of our Norco College Rocketry Team this year! Our Team would like to share with you their combined efforts this year and the work involved to compete at the FAR 51025 Competition in the Mohave Desert with short videos of our competition rocket named “Peaches” - her successful launch, payload video, team video and a photo collage of the team. The team also prepared an article sharing their journey from Fall 2022 to present which is also attached. We finished 7 overall out of 15 teams and 6 in the 10,000-foot category. “Peaches” is on display in the STEM Center…come and see her!

 

"Peaches" Launch
"Vector" Launch
   
NC Rocketry Payload Video
Norco College Rocketry (NCR) Team - 2023 FAR Competition - "Peaches" Launch Inner POV
NC Rocketry Team Video
Norco College Rocketry (NCR) Team - "Peaches" - FAR 51025 - June 2023

 

In Fall 2022, Norco College Rocketry collaborated with the Flabob Airport Rocketry Program by taking weekly classes and worked diligently to educate themselves on rocketry fundamentals and techniques. On March 4, we successfully launched and retrieved our rocket “Vector" and performed a static fire in the Mojave Desert. Not only was this Norco College Rocketry’s first experimental launch, but Vector was also the culmination of our team’s weeks-long effort over the Winter 2023 term to educate ourselves further and gain more experience in rocketry.

The goal of Vector was to practice techniques on a smaller-scale rocket and perfect them before utilizing them on a much larger competition rocket. For size reference, Vector was approximately forty-five inches (three feet, nine inches) long, and competition rockets typically span a height of nine-twelve feet. Vector is a milestone project because it featured unique components which our team members developed. Specific parts were custom modeled, and 3D printed, including the motor retainer, fin can, avionics bay, and nosecone. Vector’s payload featured an in-house developed GPS, built with LoRas.

Vector flew with an experimental solid motor, which we made over the course of a few weeks at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (F.A.R.) facility in the Mojave Desert. After Vector’s flight, we performed a static fire with another experimental motor we made. Our team members spent 14+ hours mixing and packing propellant and using the lathe to mill and machine the motor grains. Making our own experimental motors has been the goal of the team since its founding in 2019. Our accomplishment in learning this process and a successful experimental flight is quite significant to us.

On launch day, we arrived at F.A.R. shortly after 9:30am and began launch preparations. We assembled the rocket, and the altimeter and GPS systems checked for flight readiness. Simultaneously, we assembled the experimental solid motor and prepared for launch. After waiting for other groups to finish launching their rockets, we set up Vector on the launch rail.

There was some apprehension about launching due to the increasing wind, but the site officials gave us the all-clear. At 11:40am, Vector launched. Despite the wind, its path was beautiful, the take-off straight and true. Vector reached an apogee of 1,620 feet. The recovery systems functioned as planned; ejection charges fired by the altimeter after reaching apogee and separation occurred, allowing for the parachute to deploy and Vector to descend safely. We confirmed her landing at 11:42am, over a mile away from the launch site. However, thanks to the impressive GPS system coded by our team to transmit live data, we were able to track Vector the whole time on our smartphone. We found Vector and recovered her with minimal damage, mostly light scratches, and chipped paint. Damage was so minimal; Vector could have immediately flown again for a second flight.

After bringing Vector back to the launch facility, we began preparations to conduct a static fire. Static fires assess the performance of motors by measuring data and characterizing physical properties. We began by assembling and calibrating equipment for recording the total force produced by the motor, chamber pressure, and important flight phases such as the moment of ignition and firing motor ejection charges. After this, we set up our remote data collecting station in a secure bunker and safely ran a static fire of the experimental solid motors we prepared. By the time the static fire concluded, it was just before 5:00pm and our team was tired but celebrating our remarkably successful and productive day in the desert.

Vector was a monumental launch for our team for several reasons. It was responsible for many “firsts”—first experimental launch, first flight with custom 3D printed parts, and first self-developed GPS systems. But most importantly, Vector’s success embodies to us that with hard work, determination, and education anything can be achieved. The sky is not the limit!

With the new knowledge we have gained from our experiences, Vector has set Norco College Rocketry on a new trajectory, with both direction and magnitude.

After Vector, we began preparations for our competition rocket for the FAR 51025 Competition. Planning commenced immediately for our Design Review on April 7, where we presented our entire rocket design to various NC faculty and administrators. Reviewing their feedback and input, we made minor changes to our design and began constructing our 9-foot-tall competition rocket, “Peaches” for the competition.

On competition day, June 2, we packed up our rocket, our tools, and luggage and set off for F.A.R. We arrived shortly after noon and immediately began preparing our rocket for inspection. The inspection went smoothly, the biggest concerns of the official being the location of our rail buttons and the length of the shock cord, both of which were easy fixes.

Early Saturday, we returned to F.A.R. from the local hotel and began preparations for our rocket’s launch. After repositioning the rail buttons, lengthening the shock cord, and troubleshooting other details, we were ready! We set up Peaches on the rail and waited with anticipation for the all-clear. Peaches launched, however, due to an unforeseeable anomaly of the nozzle, the motor snuffed out before burnout, causing the rocket to lose velocity and land on the ground. Fortunately, due to altimeters detecting an apogee and deploying the drogue parachute, the rocket landed on the ground next to the launch rail. Our best explanation was that the epoxy holding the graphite insert could not handle the pressure in the motor and became a point of failure. The high-pressure buildup caused the gasses inside the motor to escape at a higher velocity than expected, creating a vacuum inside the motor that caused the burning to stop. However, Peaches remained in a recoverable state, where the only points of damage were at the motor nozzle, the nose tip, the avionics door, and the drone bay. All components were repairable. After evaluating the situation everyone tried to remain optimistic. With the approval of the F.A.R. officials, we decided to regroup and prepare for another launch attempt on Sunday.

Sunday morning dawned and we were back at F.A.R. for a third day, determined to have a successful launch. After assembling Peaches, we set her up on the rail for a second time. The tension was thick, and nerves were high. This was our last chance for a productive launch. Would we succeed or would everything we had worked for in the past year have been for nothing? At 3:27pm, Peaches launched. As we watched, Peaches soared above our heads into the sky. At apogee, our altimeters fired the ejection charges and the aft end of the rocket separated, deploying the drogue parachute as planned. We watched as she swiftly descended, then at approximately five hundred feet above the ground, the second set of ejection charges fired, and the nosecone separated from the rest of the rocket. This was the most critical moment; would the main parachute deploy? If it did not, our rocket would most likely crash. The parachute tumbled through the air, then finally, it unfurled and caught air, slowing Peaches to a slower and safer descent. We cheered as she landed within our line of sight, within one thousand feet of the launchpad, we recovered Peaches, entirely intact and with no visible damage. We brought Peaches back to the facility, where the officials examined her. From the altimeters, we found that Peaches had reached an apogee of 6,111 feet. Judging commenced and bonus points awarded for creative and ingenious engineering which impressed the judges, such as the nosecone doors for the water ballast, 3D printed brackets for the fiberglass fins, and custom avionics bay design. Our team earned a total of 10,117 points after judging. With the launch a success and the judging complete, we packed up and left F.A.R. in high spirits, already planning for next year.

From Vector’s and Peaches’ success, we learned how resilience, purpose, and perseverance are vital to our education despite how bleak it might seem. Through teamwork and determination, anything is possible. We are especially grateful for the support, assistance, and resources we received from our faculty, administrators, and Associated Students of Norco College. Our successful launch would not have happened without everyone’s support and encouragement.

While at F.A.R., we had the opportunity to meet and befriend other university teams competing in the competition, like Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Los Angeles, and the Singapore Propulsion Lab Team. Although we were here to compete, no one hesitated to lend a helping hand when in need. For example, a member from the Cal Poly Pomona Team saw us facing some issues with our drone, and being knowledgeable of drones himself, volunteered to look it over and help us troubleshoot. The Singapore Team approached us because they were experiencing connection issues with their GPS system, which we helped them fix.

We are so proud of our progress this year and aspire to achieve even more moving forward. Most importantly, we plan to continue this trajectory with bright spirits and great momentum, not only to exercise our passion for STEM, engineering, and rocketry but also to inspire, educate and spark a similar interest in our fellow students. As a School Team, we will continue to strive in our efforts to bring recognition and representation to Norco College and highlight our spirit for rocketry.