Summer Update

Happy Summer!

With the coming of warm weather and summer internships, Rocket Lab has slowed down its killer pace to gain valuable industry experience and reflect back on what has thus far been achieved. In May, we pulled together a full scale static fire to continue testing for our latest project Traveler. In a stunning three weeks of hard, treacherous work, Rocket Lab showed that its members are able to accomplish anything, even if it seems impossible.

Testing out at the Reaction Research Society site in Mojave, CA proved to be an educational trip where we experienced a rapid unscheduled dis-assembly. We consider this to be a successful test in that we gained valuable information about the nature of carbon fiber that have allowed us to re-evaluate several aspects of the design to make our rocket flight ready and successful. As Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." The purpose of static fires is to test what we have done thus far and see what can be improved or changed before taking the final step and launching. We have done that.

We were also able to prove a new nozzle design, which we see as a great success.

So with happy hearts and energetic minds, we look to the Fall, when we will bring what we have learned from our respective internships this summer to the table to create some of the best rockets a university will ever be lucky enough to produce.

Keep your eyes on this site, because in the next few months, we hope to dazzle.

-Sarah Hester