Amateur Two-Stage Rocket: Lessons Learned from a Hilarious Launch Failure
This blog post recounts the author's first attempt at building and launching a two-stage model rocket. The story starts with excitement and a confident countdown, only to end with the rocket flopping over after a few meters. The post details the rocket's design and construction, including the propulsion system (homemade solid rocket motors), structure (paper body tube, 3D-printed nose cone and fins), avionics (Arduino and NodeMCU-based flight computers for real-time monitoring and active stage separation), and recovery system. Despite the initial launch failure, the author shares valuable lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of simple design in the learning process and how to gain insight from setbacks. The project highlights the use of readily available materials and open-source tools like OpenRocket and OpenMotor.
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