Launch News (FAILURE) Space launch down in Aloha! Super Strypi first launch, November 3/4, 2015

[DaveS]

I have to say that this is quite surprising...

It's true that space flight is always difficult and full of unknowns, but yet we are talking about nasa and a very simple rocket... It seems to me like Ferrari could not make work a baby toy car...

NASA has nothing do with the Super Strypi. It was developed by the USAF Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office along with Sandia National Laboratory. NASA's only contribution was the mounting structure for the cubesat payloads. Aerojet-Rocketdyne provided the three solid propellant stages.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Launch of Super Strypi rocket from Hawaii - YouTube

Well I was watching during a break from work training - just as I was thinking at T+30 s that "Hmm, isn't that spin rate a bit too high?" the rocket started to wobble and I knew it would flop sooner or later... :shifty:

To compare, here's a sounding rocket launch where the spin stabilization is working (well, it's an order of magnitude smaller than the one we are talking about....):

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Launch of Super Strypi rocket from Hawaii - YouTube

What was wrong with that? Most of my KSP launches look like that.