About a half dozen members of E.R.P.S. travelled out to the Fresno Tripoli HPR event on 20 Feb 2016 in preparation for the KISS vehicle Return To Flight. By flying KISS Beta – an HPR solid motor powered test of the powered launch of the Avionics and Recovery sections of KISS, the team demonstrated the readiness for a liquid fueled flight. Launch, deployment, recovery and data analysis all went extremely well and the stage is set to now fly the Return To Flight mission in the near future.Seen here are (l to r), Thomas L (Director), Dave W (Recovery Lead), Dafne T (KISS Reflight Lead) and Dan S (BiProp Lead) standing with the assembled KISS Beta vehicle, just before launch. Missing from the photo are Thomas Z and Sean L and son.
The vehicle reached an altitude of 3520 feet and returned almost to the launch site. Deployment of the chute was nominal. R-DAS data was recovered:
All in all a good flight – Video here and here.
Preparations are now underway for a peroxide static test fire, likely in March at F.A.R. (Friends of Amateur Rocketry). Once tested and verified, we’ll proceed to a peroxide launch, possibly on the same trip as the static test. Stay tuned!