This document summarizes a high school student's project to build and launch a high-power rocket to earn NAR Level 1 certification. The student designed the rocket using simulation software and with guidance from his mentor. Several obstacles arose during construction, including an issue with the altimeter design. On the day of the scheduled launch, heavy rain forced cancellation. The student and his father drove over 4 hours to another rocketry club in Alabama, where they successfully launched the rocket just before the event ended. The student was pleased to earn certification from both NAR and Tripoli and enjoyed spending time with his father on the project.

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Cody Blackwell
Mrs. Corbett
AP English Lit/Comp
18 April 2012
High-Power Rocketry
“Research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” It may surprise you
that I began this presentation with that statement, but I am only repeating a quote from our
nation’s most celebrated rocket scientist, Dr. Wernher von Braun. Through the Army Ballistic
Missile Agency (ABMA), Dr. von Braun and an extremely bright team of engineers and
researchers revolutionized America’s defense and space exploration technology as we know
them. ABMA’s research proved most instrumental to NASA’s Apollo program, but, as with any
substantial scientific strides, the program had its flaws. More specifically, my research paper
discusses the events leading up to Apollo XIII and how Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert
survived for nearly six days after two oxygen tank explosions in the command module. I plan to
study aerospace engineering, and in keeping with the problem-solving spirit, I focused on the
ingenious valve NASA engineers developed from duct tape, plastic bags, and cardboard that
supplied the three astronauts enough oxygen to return safely home.
One might ask, “How can Apollo XIII possibly relate to high-power rocketry?” When I
first received instructions for this project, I considered researching techniques for integrating
gravity-fed cooling systems into nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster but
ruled it out after assessing its practicality. Building on this practicality, I realized it made much
more sense if I built on my prior experiences, namely in amateur rocketry. I have been a member
of Creekview Aeronautics Club for the past four years, and our teams have only used relatively

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low-impulse engines in our rockets for Team America Rocketry Challenge. High-power rocketry
(HPR), on the other hand, is an entirely different ball game, and I chose to build and launch a
high-power rocket specifically because it requires meticulousness and considerably more time
than anything the Aeronautics Club does. Accordingly, I encountered an issue I will discuss
momentarily which presented an almost project-ending conundrum requiring me, like Mission
Control, to work with what little supplies I had.
As I learned from members of Southern Area Rocketry (SoAR)—our local National
Association of Rocketry (NAR) chapter—and namely Mr. Todd Sharrock and Coach Tim Smyrl,
a HPR certification is a prized possession among hobbyists and university clubs. For example,
NAR Level I certification (my goal) authorizes flight privileges for rockets weighing over 53
ounces (3.3 pounds), with total impulses between 160.01 Newton-seconds and 640 Newton-
seconds, and/or engines not classified as “model rocket motors.” I figured if I could push myself
to achieve Eagle Rank, building and flying a high-power rocket for said authorization would be
no problem. But like the trail to Eagle, this project required a dedicated mentor, an accountability
coach who would scrutinize any changes I made before approving them. As a charter member of
the Aeronautics Club and a team captain for the past three years, I know both Mr. Sharrock and
Coach Smyrl well. However, I selected Mr. Sharrock because he taught my freshman biology
course and our lunch periods happened to coincide this year. Over the past seven months, we
met regularly to discuss design options, component suppliers, and any problems I encountered
along the way.
Consequently, the essence of engineering commands careful consideration and
consultation before any project commences. For several days in December, Mr. Sharrock and I
discussed his and Coach Smyrl’s successful Level I designs as well as reliable component

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vendors. Finally settling on Public Missiles Limited (PML), I began designing my rocket using
Apogee Components’ RockSim 9.0 software, basing the prototype off a PML parts list in the
software’s database. I simultaneously researched high-power rocket plans and stumbled across a
recovery system I had never seen.
Since the Aeronautics Club’s inception, we have attached one parachute each to our
rockets’ payload and airframe sections, allowing the two to return separately to the ground.
However, the system I found and eventually utilized is a single-chute design using a piston that
eliminates the need for a black-powder ejection charge. This system allows for the parachute to
be linked with the piston and nosecone by a shock cord and stored without any wadding between
the piston and the nosecone; the reloadable motor’s delay forces the piston, parachute, and
nosecone out of the tube, keeping all parts of the rocket together during its descent. The only
flaw was that I could not use a launch rail system like Mr. Sharrock’s rocket because the guide
pins would obstruct the piston. Regardless, I showed Mr. Sharrock and Coach Smyrl, who both
heartily recommended it because they have never tried it themselves. Regarding the rest of the
rocket, I incorporated the same motor mount design we use in Aeronautics Club with the
exception of the motor retainer, which NAR strongly encourages hobbyists to use for high-power
rockets, and the number of fins (three instead of four). I settled on slotted phenolic tubing, a
hardened parabolic nose cone, and fiberglass fins so, as Mr. Sharrock pointed out, I would at
least have something to show in case of a catastrophic failure!
Thankfully, all of the parts shipped together over Christmas break. Around that time, I
also researched the different types of reloadable motors supplied by AeroTech Consumer
Aerospace and Cesaroni Technology, Inc. Again, my membership in the Aeronautics Club
exposed me to AeroTech reloadable motors; however, our brand new reloads were not

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performing well at the time, and Cesaroni seemed to offer a much higher-quality lineup of 29
mm-diameter motors for substantially lower prices. Using RockSim-generated flight predictions
for comparable motors and data sheets provided by AeroTech and Cesaroni, I determined the
Cesaroni H87-12A, with an average thrust of 87 Newtons and a 12 second delay, was most
suitable for my certification purposes.
Assembling the rocket did not prove too difficult, thanks to my prior experiences, and I
started from the bottom up. The motor mount consisted of two customary plywood centering
rings, one of which had a slot cut into it so I could glue the bottom nylon shock cord directly to
the motor tube to link the mount to the piston. Additionally, I positioned the centering rings
where the fins would fit snugly between the rings in their respective slots. On a recommendation
from Mr. Sharrock, I used marine epoxy to adhere the motor mount inside the body tube and the
fiberglass fins in their slots. I allowed the epoxy to cure before tying the bottom shock cord to
the piston, and from there I looped and knotted the top shock cord onto the parachute and linked
it to the piston.
At this point, I believed I was almost finished with the rocket until I realized I had not
integrated an altimeter section in my original design. On a typical TARC rocket, the payload
section includes an altimeter compartment, but I completely neglected the fact that my project
proposal contained an altitude requirement for my rocket. The first week of March, Mr. Sharrock
and I started brainstorming about the altimeter section design. We thought we had devised a
decent setup consisting of PVC tubing and an eye hook until I actually purchased the supplies. It
turned out that it would be impossible to access the altimeter because both ends of the PVC pipe
would have to be sealed in ordered to function correctly. Since I did not want to spend any more

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money, I finally came up with the current design, which essentially extended the nosecone as an
altimeter compartment.
Amazingly, the same week I redesigned the rocket, SoAR announced it would be
rescheduling its “Georgia Rockets in the Sky” (GRITS) launch for Saturday, March 31st, at
TurfSouth Sod Farm in Lilly, GA (three-and-a-half hours away), instead of April 14 th at a
cornfield in Ranger, GA (an hour-and-a-half away) because the cornfield owner sold his farm in
February. Since the 31st was the beginning of Spring Break, I seized the opportunity and
completed the rocket ahead of time.
Regardless of the altimeter issue, the most significant obstacle of this entire project
proved to be not the rocket itself but Mother Nature. The Thursday before GRITS, I contacted
SoAR’s president, Mr. Jorge Blanco, who assured me the launch would continue as long as the
forecasted rain chance remained low. My dad and I got up early that Saturday to drive to Lilly,
but we had not reached Macon before the sky clouded over. The weather only worsened the
further south we drove, and we finally arrived around 10 A.M. to torrential downpours and a
dangerously muddy driveway to the launch site. Mr. Blanco informed us that he and the other
people present planned to wait until noon for the rain to cease. Dad and I slept in our truck until
about 11:15 A.M., constantly receiving weather updates from my mother whenever phone
reception was available. Around this time, I remembered Coach Smyrl talking about a club in
Talladega, AL, that hosts launches at the end of every month. I found what I thought was a
phone number and address for the club (Phoenix Missile Works, or PMW), on the NAR website
during one of the reception spurts, and informed Mr. Blanco of our plans. Unexpectedly, he was
very adamant that I should do whatever I could to get my certification flight that day and wished
Dad and I luck!

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Using our trusty GPS, Dad and I set out back toward Byromville before we headed
northwest toward Columbus. During a pit stop in Montezuma, I figured out that the GPS
displayed our expected time of arrival at 3:30 P.M. …Central time, meaning we had a four-hour
drive ahead of us. As far as getting to the address on the website, the drive was fairly uneventful,
although we passed through Fort Benning, and I got to see more of east-central Alabama than I
ever thought I would. Following the GPS, we drove to PMW’s registered address, which turned
out to be the treasurer’s home in Ashville, a small town outside Gadsden and the absolute wrong
side of Interstate 20! Dad and I drove into Downtown Ashville about 4:30 P.M. Central time, and
while I called Mr. Sharrock for directions, Dad logically found the fire station and asked the
firefighters for directions. As it turned out, we had driven about 45 minutes out of the way, but
both Mr. Sharrock and the Ashville firefighters were able to access PMW’s website and get us
directions. We arrived at PMW’s cornfield around a quarter after five only to find out that I had
to register with Tripoli Rocketry Association to be able to launch. However, I managed to meet
some of the most helpful people on earth there, and luckily my “emergency” money covered the
membership fee, and I placed my rocket on the pad in under 30 minutes. As if there were butter
on the launch rod, the rocket lifted off and soared into the Alabama sky to the cheers of my swift
acquaintances. The ejection charge performed flawlessly, and the rocket floated gently down to
the field; Dad and I spent about 20 minutes looking for it, though, because the parachute landed
in a puddle. I triumphantly carried the completely unscathed rocket back to the PMW tent for a
final evaluation.
To my surprise, the PMW folks informed me about the certification reciprocities between
Tripoli and NAR, so in effect I became a member of national and international rocketry
organizations while gaining significant privileges from both. On the other hand, I expanded my

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amateur rocketry experience into a realm that falls more under engineering research and
simultaneously dealt with likable people along the way. As an added bonus, I essentially
solidified my near-obsessive attention to detail, but most importantly, I got the opportunity to
spend the entire day with Dad and truly show him how interested I am in studying aerospace
engineering as I enter Georgia Tech this coming fall.