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X-12 Water Rocket World Altitude Record Attempt almost fails with 1,909 foot (581.86 meters) average altitude.
Updated: 11:21 p.m. EDT (03:21 GMT) May 8, 2006
GALWAY, New York (Routers) -- A faulty O-ring nearly costs U.S. Water Rockets another World Record.
U.S. Water Rockets nearly suffered a lost opportunity to set another Water Rocket Altitude Record, when an O-Ring failed under enormous pressure on the record confirming flight.
After launching the X-12 Rocket
to an altitude of 1,918 feet on the primary flight at 5:55PM, the U.S.
Water Rockets Team simply had to repeat the flight within the required
2-hour window to claim the flights for a new WRA2
record.
However, disaster nearly struck when an O-Ring in the
nozzle of the craft failed under pressure and allowed the water to start
leaking from the rocket. The resulting loss of reaction mass forced the
team to attempt a premature second launch. The results of the second
launch were not sufficient to back up the altitude achieved in the first
launch, so the team had less than an hour to repair the damaged seal and
prepare X-12 for another attempt..
With the clock running down and
the sun setting on the horizon, the U.S. Water Rockets Team hurried to
reset and reload X-12 so there would be sufficient time to pressurize the
rocket to sufficient launch pressure to attain the necessary altitude to
prove the new record was repeatable. At 7:35PM, with 20 minutes to spare,
X-12 flew to 1,899 feet and set a new WRA2
average
altitude of 1,909 feet (581.86 meters). U.S. Water Rockets restored X-12 Water Rocket again successfully raised the WRA2
record altitude.
At the victory celebration, the U.S. Water Rockets
Team Captain announced that they have set a goal of 2,000 feet by the end
of the summer. Redesign of X-12 and the launch systems would need to take
place to accomplish this incredible feat, but from the reaction of the
crowd it sounded like they were very serious.
Graph: 5/08/2006 Altimeter Data Graph for Flight #1 Graph: 5/08/2006 Altimeter Data Graph for Flight #2 Related Story: X-12 Water Rocket Video Camera Fails after Flight of 2,088 Feet. Related Story: X-12's Previous most recent record breaking flights Related Story: X-12's Next most recent record breaking flights |
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