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ROPA - Update - January 19, 2007

Tonight our downrange site at Toolick Lake was snowed in, so the other mission (JouleII, PI Miguel Larsen at Clemson) was "prime" for the night. They had good conditions and good activity, and they launched late in the morning, a salvo of 4 vehicles all of which went off beautifully. So now when we drive down the hill, there's only one rocket left....

Actually in my note the other day I was wrong when I said that ROPA was the one on the far right; ROPA is on the middle launcher, Pad3 out of 5. The solar wind continues to stay at the high velocity of a high-speed stream from a coronal hole, so we continue optimistic for good auroral activity tomorrow.

Pictures taken by Linda May

Here is an up-close picture of our BlackBrant12 rocket on the rail, enclosed in its styrofoam box for warm air containment. You can see the fins of the first three stages poking through the box; it's a little hard to see the scale but my head would come to a little above the bottom fin if I stood next to it. The top motor (the 4th stage, the Nikha) doesn't have fins because it doesn't ignite until the vehicle is above the atmostphere, so there's nothing for fins to push against.

In the background you can see one of the smaller Larsen vehicles.

-K