Dear reader,

I just got back from Space Port Nexoe very happy on behalf of everyone at Copenhagen Suborbitals, sponsors and partners.

Our mission was a tremendous success. Not only did we have a perfect launch and got all data needed for further development of active guidance, but the campaign was a perfect showcase of teamwork, dedication and execution.

It was a great experience to watch the Sapphire-team fight last minute payload battles, the HD-stream team getting their 50 Mb link from the Baltic Sea to Copenhagen running and all maritime departments getting ready and working hard to ensure a perfect launch at sea.

It was a pleasure to conduct the launch as Flight Director with such great friends.

Peter Madsen samler verdens fÃ¸rste styrbare hybrid amatÃ¸r raket - sapphire. Planen er at den skal flyve op til max 8 km hÃ¸jde. Sapphire and booster-man Peter Madsen. Image: Bo Tornvig

Due to the limitations of my brain's power at this moment, I will give you the highlights and basic data and present more detailed information on the Sapphire-launch later this week, when all data has been examined.

Sunday June 23, our fleet was assembled at Baltic Sea military test range ES D 139. From that moment the procedures for getting the launch ready began. As always, it was an interesting juggling of systems check-out, updating firmware, keeping fishermen out of the area and the Swedish and Danish authorities.

Each time you have one system ready you suddenly got new unwanted fishing-boats in the area. National-guard vessel 903 and Nexoe Search and Rescue boats confronted these boats (mostly by radio) and cleared the area – all the time! I had to give the GO for closing the sky for any incoming airplanes at least 30 minutes before the launch and this GO would last for 30 minutes only. So, when you believe you are ready to launch and this is being handled by the authorities everyone crosses their fingers for no more technical delays or fishermen. We even had a misunderstanding with a Danish authority, but Peter Madsen worked that out at sea.

Below is a recording of the launch-streaming. Just in case you need to kill five hours...

12.41 CET I pushed the button standing next to Flight Dynamics Officer Steen Andersen and Guidance-man Flemming Nyboe. A very intense moment. What we saw was nothing less than a perfect flight. For now I can tell you that we got apogee at 8,200 m (27,000 feet) as expected and the apogee downrange offset, from the launch site, was app 140 m.

Now that, my friends, is active guidance!

Below is a video of the FIDO-monitor in mission control during launch. The excitement and joy in mission control is quite obvious despite bad sound and a weird Norse language.

The deployment of drogue and main chute was based on IMU data and worked fine during the apogee drogue deployment phase. However, when it was time for deploying the main chute, the IMU gyros has drifted beyond reason and calculations likewise.

In short, the signal to the main chute never came because our calculations eventually didn’t make any sense. The phenomena of drifting gyros is known, and the time span you are able to perform accurate calculations is based on how steady we can perform the calibration 200 seconds prior to launch – nothing wrong with the IMU. Below is the IMU data of the launch also indicating the drifting calculations close to time=90 seconds.

Sapphire eventually hit the ocean with 42m/s and was not found but since all data was downloaded on a dual band system we got it all for further analysis and development.

Main engine cut off: T+16.8, alt=4005, (75m downrange) @ max speed 344.3 m/s (1239.48 km/t). Apogee: T+45.5 alt=8253. (188m downrange). Image: Flemming Nyboe Main engine cut off: T+16.8, alt=4005, (75m downrange) @ max speed 344.3 m/s (1239.48 km/t). Apogee: T+45.5 alt=8253. (188m downrange). Image: Flemming Nyboe

We have entered a new era and from now on things will become big, powerful and crazy. I love this project and the people I am working with. Thank you so much!!

In short – there is no stopping Copenhagen Suborbitals for going into space now!

Special thanks goes to: YouSee for streaming link, Nexoe Search and Rescue team and National-guard vessel 903.

More images from the test right here.

Ad Astra

Kristian von Bengtson