A love for the project, a need for competition, and a driven passion. WVUER (West Virginia University Experimental Rocketry) participated in the 15th annual Spaceport America Cup with their 30,000ft Student Researched and Designed rocket Appalachian Sunset and Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge ScatterSat. The competition team traveled out to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the 7 day competition. The team and rocket was to be evaluated on their project, presentation of the rocket’s information, and overall performance of the system to be ranked within their own category, and ranked among 99 other teams from 24 countries.
Typical weather conditions in Las Cruces are mostly sunny and warm with a side of chilly nights. In an unusual weather occurrence, Las Cruces saw a slight increase in rain come through the week of the competition than it has seen in the past for June. The first allowable day of flights, Tuesday, June 21st, was washed out due to the rain turning the vertical launch area (VLA) into a muddy slip and slide. Instead of turning the day into a complete loss, the team was able to finish the rocket’s flight safety review of the motor at the horizontal launch area (HLA) with ESRA judges, finish up last minute changes to the rocket, and go through the preflight and motor checklists to make sure all information was written out to avoid missing steps and allow for learning from the scheduled 2022 Kansas test flight.
On Wednesday June 22nd, 2022, Appalachian Sunset took its maiden voyage through the almost crystal clear blue sky of the New Mexico desert. Prep for the rocket began at 4:30 AM MST riding on the nerves of the team and excitement for the arrival of flight day. After 6 hours of prep, the rocket was slid onto the launch rail at 10:30 AM, and the final preflight checklists began. Soon after, the loading team left the launch pad area and headed back to the viewing area to await for liftoff. 11:30 AM marked the time that Appalachian Sunset began her journey into the sky. All WVUER members, Yagies, and antennas were fixed to the sky to catch sight (or radio frequencies and connections) of the rocket as it went through the ignition, motor burnout, and the various deployment stages of the flight. The flight lasted for about 10 minutes before all components landed safely and together. After inspection for any possible damage or loss of connection at any point during the flight, the flight and rocket was deemed nominal, and the official apogee that the rocket flew to was just shy of 30,000ft at 28,997ft. The team spent the time post flight and recovery celebrating a flight that had each member anxious due to the fear and thoughts that this flight was going to have a similar outcome to Appalachian Sunset’s predecessor Mountain Mama’s scheduled test flight in Argonia, Kansas.
Not only was Appalachian Sunset’s flight historic for the club as it is the first rocket to be built under the circumstances it was built in, but it also carried the club’s first working scientific payload, ScatterSat. ScatterSat, as a whole system, is an 8.8lb 3U CubeSat system that deployed 2 rectangular satellites at 2,200ft from the mothership that was homed in the rocket’s payload shroud. As the sats descended from where they were deployed to the ground, they collected atmospheric data that was taken to MATLAB once retrieved to create a 3D map of what was collected. In year’s past, the club had attempted to create scientific payloads, but none were successful and resulted in the team being forced to put an inert 8.8lb chunk of aluminum into the rocket.
June 2022 and Spaceport America marked an eventful period of time for WVUER. Aside from being the month that marked the Appalachian Sunset and ScatterSat maiden voyages, it also symbolized the hard work and dedication of everyone involved with bringing the vehicle to life. A team consists of a group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal. The WVUER team is more than just that, they are also a group of individuals that want to produce the best possible product of something that may seem daunting to others. The team is driven by the love of competition, want to succeed, and passion for the project and hobby. Each member of the team had a hand in the progression of construction and image of the rocket in various subteams: Project Leads, Recovery, Communications, Media, Construction, Planning, Propulsion, and Payload. And, so, hard work leads to success. At the end of the competition, WVUER, Appalachian Sunset, and ScatterSat placed 1st in the 30,000ft SRAD Solid Rocket Motors category, 3rd in the entire competition, and 2nd place in the SDL Payload Challenge. With the third place finish in the entire competition and 2nd place in the payload challenge, this also meant that the rocket became the best SRAD rocket and 2nd best payload in the world. The team is thrilled over the moon about the results of this year, and can’t wait to see how the next year goes.
Elizabeth Breckenridge, Tripoli #21851
WVUER Vice President
(All work done for the competition couldn’t have been done without the help of the sponsors and the much appreciated advice of the team’s advisors: Dr. Joseph Pscolka Jr., and Dr. Patrick H. Browning. The WVUER team greatly appreciates all the help that has been given to them for this project and all previous projects and can’t wait to work with them again on the 2023 competition rocket.)