Clemson Rocket Club Has Best Year Ever!
July 7, 2022
On June 23rd, the Clemson Rocket Engineering Team competed in the Spaceport America Cup (10k COTS Division) in New Mexico.
This year was the best launch for the team ever:
- The team was able to launch on the first day of the competition, 6th launch of the day, in the third salvo.
- The team fully recovered the rocket, with only minor damage (classified as cosmetic damage). This was the first time the team had carbon fiber, tip-to-tip layup fins, and withstood the launch; the rocket’s fins had no flutter. We also had fiberglass composite body tubes for the first time in the team’s history.
- We only had a 2.7% error from our predicted altitude (we predicted 10,383 feet and only overshot to 10,665 feet; an average collected from our altimeters sensors). This error came from a difference in actual temperature at the time we launched (when fixing the simulation for the correct temperature, we would have predicted an apogee of 10,588 feet, a 0.0048% error).
The team members included Alex Pratt, Anthony Dempsey, Beau Bischoff, Daniel Carlson, and Deon Wallace.
Photos of the event:
