The Black Rock Desert: Where Launching Rockets is Just Another Day

As we stood at the launch pad in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, it was hard not to feel a sense of excitement and trepidation. We were here for an event where rockets were being launched, but we weren't exactly attending Burning Man. Our team, led by Clay Reynolds, had been working tirelessly to prepare for this moment, and I couldn't help but feel like my squirrel reaction - I just wanted to run and hide.

But there was nowhere to hide in the open plain, so we had to focus on the task at hand. We were launching a rocket, and it was going to be a pretty far-flying one. With 800 pounds of thrust, it was like being close to a magnificent creature - like a lion. I was nervous, but Clay reassured us that everything would be fine. We just had to make sure the propellant was in place, and that we had all the necessary safety measures in check.

As we worked, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in our team's efforts. We had built the structure ourselves, with only six hours of welding and parts from Home Depot under our belts. It wasn't exactly a conventional launch pad, but it got the job done. And besides, we had all the necessary permits - FAA waivers, BLM permits, you name it. We were even prepared for the possibility of hitting birds in mid-air (though I had never seen anyone do that before).

As we finished up the final preparations, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement. This was going to be one of those moments where you realized that you could actually do something crazy and make it work. And besides, there was always the possibility that we might even find a bird or two in the sky.

Finally, the moment arrived. We were just 21 minutes away from closing the airspace for the day, but our launch window had arrived. It was time to put everything into action - or so we thought. As it turned out, things didn't quite go according to plan. The rocket began to move on its own, and before long, it was clear that something was very wrong.

The electronics in the booster started to malfunction, and alarms began to sound all over the launch pad. It was like a scene from a disaster movie - only instead of exploding cars or buildings, we had exploding rockets. And as it turned out, our rocket had taken an unexpected turn towards the side, completely losing its GPS signal.

The team sprang into action, frantically trying to track down the lost rocket. But despite their best efforts, they couldn't find it anywhere. And when I asked Clay how much money we had spent on the project, he chuckled and said that it was all worth it just to learn something new every time.

As it turned out, the real problem wasn't with the rocket motor itself - but rather with the design of the fans. It was an easy fix, and next year's launch would be a breeze. And besides, there was always the possibility that we might even find Charlie, our trusty stuffed unicorn prop, who had been left behind in the chaos.

It turned out that Charlie had become more than just a prop - he had become a trophy. A symbol of what could have been, and what actually wasn't. As I looked around at the desolate landscape, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sheer power of the rockets we had launched into the sky.

The launch pad was quiet once again, except for the sound of the wind rustling through the desert grasses. And as I stood there, looking up at the sky, I couldn't help but wonder what lay ahead. Would we ever make it to Charlie? Only time would tell.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI don't think have hay tested Simone here and we're in the Black Rock Desert we're not here for Burning Man but for an event where they're launching a bunch of rockets I feel like I'm getting like my squirrel reaction when you just want to run and hide but there's nowhere to hide here because this just open plane look about dig a hole in the ground really and I want to go to space what a fraud at a launch pad right now and setting up the structures so we're joining a team led by clay Reynolds and yeah we're gonna launch a thing I don't know how high it's gonna go I think it'll go pretty far like we have so much propellant that I'm actually a little bit terrified but I brought my sunglasses or at least I'll have safety protective so the rocket is gonna go in this yeah you're just measuring to see that it goes into this rail so this is like the structure II that's holding it in place yeah exactly so the rocket goes it slides in here the fins kind of stick out here okay so this gives it guidance long enough for it the aerodynamic forces to get stability to take over on the things yeah the whole goal is to make sure this tube is ejecting sizes the rocket yeah so we want it to slide effortlessly yeah have you built the structure or is it something that you like buy premade no I welded this together in about six hours from parts from Home Depot good job do you have permits to to launch this stuff yeah I mean we call in an FAA waiver so they route all air traffic around this location Oh make sure we don't hit a plane because that would be bad and then we also get BLM permits and stuff so do you ever hit birds well you know I've never seen anybody hit a bird the day is young great let's go a little bit that way okay so you need the rocket can't be flush against the ground needs to be propped up yeah but what will the unicorn look like oh yeah yeah yeah we'll find out this might be the weirdest thing I've done all day all day shoving a unicorn and under a rocket it's a nice I'm sorry off padding for the rocket now let's put the igniter in the sketchy part sorry leave the unicorn here sacrificed for science try to carefully shove this up through that so there's the propellant poor goes all the way up to there so because the propellant type like this little ring inside of them so it just you go and do my best yeah I need the electrical tape so we're getting ready to launch I think we're gonna time crush there might be like a schedule and we just have set our time slot but yeah we're just scrambling to get everything in place well I don't know that one went off 800 pounds of thrust in this thing it's like being close to a magnificent creature like a lion just eat your life nobody's gonna die today just Charlie the Unicorn does anybody know the time twelve the fence down here or hitting the rails I mean we're kind of the point where you just have to go with it well it's the worst thing that can happen okay farming electronics oh no alarm the electronics in the booster first okay okay yeah that would be on the second channel the second channel is right yeah I dude I'm kind of worried that the fins on the dart might actually hit the dude I will have this done okay so it's 21 minutes until they're closing the airspace for the day for the bigger rocket and everybody's just scrambling to get everything together it's like you need to make sure that you have the GPS coming through that the wireless launch works and it's not gonna blow up holy the cameras recording yes I didn't think it was okay I mean somebody's grabbed my upper air frame on my upper frame in there the top of the dark yeah the top of the dart in the top the dark I need I need that little round nut and a wrench okay no no I have excellent eight minutes yeah everybody move out back who are you feel comfortable yes start moving vehicle goddamnit there it is okay it's in we're good oh where's my hat okay everybody go sorry this is I think we have like three minutes to spare before they close the airspace we're doing this guys see what happens call it it yeah call of adversity now see you know this is clay runs out of PR 15 already you're counting okay are we ready to go let me wait wait a second this user account click d4 Gerdes that was really stressful yeah five minutes before the waiver close I was like yeah I was freaking out but what happened because it did like the corkscrew thing um so I think what happened was as a propellant burned it moved the center of gravity so far forward that the fin started kind of rocking back and it started kind of doing a corkscrew and when that happened to probably turn sideways do you think you're gonna be able to find it no no really no wait you don't have GPS on it no yeah it as soon as it turned the GPS ah Scheck's how much money do you spend on it sorry someone will find it eventually yeah how do you how do you feel I feel pretty good actually uh that was a I made the motor in the propellant I actually made the carbon fiber case that went in it and the motor worked perfectly yeah so it wasn't a problem with the rocket motor is a problem just with kinda like the design of the fans and so that's an easy fix and I can redo it and next year or sweet so I'm pretty excited you learn something every time yeah so definitely not the worst thing that's happened oh definitely not oh yeah if it just blew up on the pattern that would have been the worst thing I happen if it actually went I was testing a motor very similar to this and we dug a hole we put the motor upside down just to like static test it so it wouldn't go anywhere and we lit the motor and it has so much thrust that it just went straight down into the water table it went down into the ground at about 40 miles an hour how far to the daggit float down it hit the water table at about 15 feet underground and then when I hit the water table it just stopped yeah I tried digging it out I spent like two days trying to dig it out and then when I came back the next day the whole hole that I dug filled with water no because it was below the water table so it sits in the desert - so it was in this launch wasn't - 18 feet this is probably how far do you think it went I mean I love probably yeah we're like looking at the sky as if there would be a point of reference I think it probably turned sideways or like three or four thousand feet and then it probably went about five or six miles that way I know what happened to Charlie this is gonna be a trophy on my wall this is everything that's left is that all you can find this is so to prop up the rocket we put in a stuffed unicorn because that's all they had at hand and this is what it's last of Charlie the Unicorn oh wow that's the whole Levi ball so he's really\n"