Several members of the St. Louis Rocketry Association traveled to the Black Rock Desert to make a Tripoli launch record attempt. The site chosen for this attempt was the 22nd annual Tripoli BALLS rocket launch event held on the Black Rock Desert dry lake bed near Gerlach, NV. SLRA members Lou Goldring and Craig Klimczak traveled to Nevada to make the attempt. Lou and Craig were assisted by members of the University of Southern California Rocket Propulsion Laboratory including Craig's daughter Stephanie and her friend Ethan Thompson.
Ethan Thompson, Stephanie Klimczak, Lou Goldring and Craig Klimczak pose for a pre-launch photo at BALLS 22.
The Come To Daddy rocket is a team effort. The O-5400 motor was built by Dr. Mark Grant of Columbia, Mo. who also supplied the launch control system used to control and launch the rocket. Machining and logistics were handled by Dan Welling who made sure that Come To Daddy was delivered safely and successfully to Reno, NV.
The first attempt to launch Come To Daddy came on Friday afternoon, September 20th. After a delay in getting the rocket and launch tower prepped, the weather worsened with high winds and dust storms forcing a shutdown of launch operations. With rain and high winds arriving on Saturday, the launch of Come To Daddy was postponed until Sunday morning. By 10:30 AM Come to Daddy was ready for launch but a defective switch in the launch control system resulted in another delay. At 11:30 AM the bugs were worked out and Come To Daddy was launched on its record breaking attempt.
Come To Daddy Lifts Off Seeking 'O' Research Record
A clean launch unfortunately was followed by an in-flight recovery bay failure that left Come To Daddy without a nose cone and parachute. The booster came in hot and was damaged on impact with the Black Rock Playa.
After losing her nose cone and recovery bay Come-To-Daddy came in hot for a hard landing on the Playa.