NORCO COLLEGE ROCKETRY
See you on the Launchpad
new beginnings
Fall 2019
Due to the fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the sheer fact that most of the team had transferred out of Norco College, the project was stuck in limbo as the 2021-2022 school year started up. As word of the available project spread, many people started to become interested in joining to revitalize the project. Norco College contacted former leaders and members of Norco Rocketry to help mentor the new members, most of whom had no experience in rocketry or where to begin.
winter 2020
building a team
In December 2021, a meeting was held by mentors to review and sort out the new members to each subsection, where they would be focusing their efforts throughout the year. The rocketry team was finally back in session! It was then decided that the future competition rocket would compete in the Friends of Amateur Rocketry’s FAR 51025k competition in June, where it would be flown under the 5k feet category. The rocket was planned to be heavily inspired by Icarus, being around 12 feet tall.
ready to fly
Between the end of March and the start of April, four members Nathan Co [Structures], Carlos Rios [Structures], Alex Tucker [Propulsion], and Hitha Antony [Propulsion] had constructed their own Super DX3 rocket capable of launching Level 1 and Level 2 motors just in time for their first launch opportunity at Lucerne Lake. At the launch site, the four members successfully launched their certification rockets and were officially Level 1 certified! This marked the beginning of many launches that earned the team their certifications.
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In May, the team swiftly began construction of Callisto. The Structures team spent most of the month creating and designing the airframe and fins. The Payload team created a CubeSAT that housed scientific instruments for data collection. Recovery’s team revamped Icarus’s recovery and avionics system to fit Callisto’s parameters which featured a unique dual-stage, dual deployment piston design. Each team came together at the end of the month to finalize and integrate their sections into Callisto’s airframe. With only a few hours to spare, Callisto was finally given her colors, her name, and assembled before the departure to the FAR launch site.
the launch and aftermath
Spring 2020
The competition launch was nothing short of amazing. The team watched as Callisto departed from the pad with a blue flame and a thunderous roar. However, during parachute deployment, an anomaly occurred. The bottom half of the rocket separated from the recovery system, plummeting to the ground while the rest of the rocket attached to the parachutes drifted down safely. The team found the motor airframe in pieces next to a crater and a burn mark. After analyzing the impact site, the team believed that the airframe had impacted the ground top side-first, dislodging the payload section from the body and rebounding back into the air where it landed on a bush several feet away. Additionally, the in-flight camera which had been located here as well, meaning any visual recording was lost. The payload section had completely been rendered unrecognizable as the components fused into scrap, and thus no scientific data was recovered.
The rest of the rocket attached to the parachutes were recovered and the root of the anomaly was found shortly after. Three aluminum threaded rods used to provide stability while the rocket launches ended up being too short as Payload attempted to integrate their equipment into the rocket. To remedy the issue, rod couplers were used to extend the rods. At the impact site, it was found that the rods snapped laterally where the couplers used to be. The forces must have been too great for the couplers to bear during parachute deployment, and due to this oversight in construction, the rest of the rocket sheared away.
onwards and upwards
Callisto’s launch achieved a total apogee of 3624 feet, 70% of the intended apogee at 5000 feet. All scientific data was lost due to the impact as well as on-board footage. In total, the team’s score was 4624 points. Despite walking away with no awards, the team was still in high spirits, celebrating throughout the night and all the way back home.
From a group of inexperienced peers, a family was forged through hardships, jokes, and a little bit of elbow epoxy. Actually, a lot of epoxy. Our work had allowed us to compete alongside prestigious universities such as Harvard, Embry Riddle, and Purdue, and made us realize that even as a community college team, we could make a name for ourselves in the big leagues. As Callisto’s year came to a close and a new season dawned, we looked toward new horizons and adventures to conquer.
