AUSROC II-2 LAUNCH CAMPAIGN REPORT Mark A. Blair AUSROC Operations Manager At 9:55 am ACST (12:25 am GMT) on Friday 26th May, the Ausroc II-2 launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Woomera Rocket Range in South Australia. This trial has been heralded by the media as a watershed moment in Australian space history as the Ausroc II-2 vehicle is the largest liquid fuelled rocket to be designed, manufactured and tested entirely in Australia. To add to this success, the program was conducted on a voluntary basis with government, industry and academic support. This program has clearly shown what can be achieved when these three entities combine their capabilities and resources towards a common goal for the benefit of all Australians. The trial campaign commenced on Friday 19th May with the arrival of the ASRI crew at the Woomera range for the pre-flight assembly and test operations. The ASRI crew comprised 10 Ausroc II-2 launch crew, 3 Sighter/Zuni rocket crew and 4 public relations officers. The rocket hardware had been delivered by truck to the range several days prior to the launch crew. The original schedule had the launch occurring on the morning of Wednesday 24th May. This gave the crew 4 days to prepare the site and vehicle for its maiden voyage and ensure that its critical systems were all functioning correctly. This was initially perceived to be conservative timing but, as it turned out, the entire 4 days was required to fine tune the system. Saturday through Tuesday saw perfect Woomera launch conditions; blue skies and light winds. On the Saturday, the fin unit was attached to the vehicle, the pneumatic valves tested, the flight electronics was bench tested and work was started on the ground support equipment, both telemetry and launcher wiring. At this stage, credit must be given to the 2 Ausroc II-2 system managers for their technical excellence and personal commitment to the program. As the mechanical systems manager, Norbert Leidinger had prepared all the mechanical components and assembly tools required for vehicle assembly and test operations and packaged them into an orderly sequence of bags to be drawn at the appropriate time. Norbert's attention to detail and his precision machining skills were a major asset for the program and his knowledge and experience was something from which the entire crew has learned. Norbert was the primary mechanical design authority and fabricator and provided his Melbourne home as the Ausroc II-2 integration facility. Andrew Cheers, as the electrical systems manager, was the principle architect of the Ausroc II-2 avionics suite. It was a direct result of his leadership, documentation skills and quiet perseverance that the avionics was completed on time and within the required specification and budget. As mentioned previously, it took the full 4 days to prepare the flight and ground segments for flight trial. John Coleman and Ian Bryce set up and tested the telemetry system, including a multitude of fine adjustments on the transmitter, antennas and receiving equipment. John was also responsible for the design, manufacture and test of the onboard pyrotechnic driver circuits. Tzupei Chen installed his launch sequence controller, conducted the dummy firing sequences in conjunction with the RAAF range personnel and provided invaluable assistance in numerous other areas. Colin Biggs, another quiet achiever, was responsible for the installation of the launcher umbilical and disconnect fitting and the wiring into the range network. Rob Graham provided invaluable assistance with the mechanical preparation of the vehicle and the launcher as well as providing the aerodynamic and range safety analysis advice. On Monday 22nd May a series of pressure tests were performed to ensure that there were no leaks in the system that could cause a flight failure. No leaks were found and the vehicle was given clearance to be installed on the launcher. The Ausroc II-2 trial campaign lasted 1 week and for those that do not know, the rangehead is approximately 45 km from the Woomera township. Given that the crew arrived at the rangehead early each morning (5.00am for the launch days) there was a requirement for a logistics officer to arrange all necessary food, drink and utensils to keep the crew in a stable state of mind and to keep the crew room in a hygenic state. This task was admirably handled by Darren Laker such that the crew could concentrate entirely on the matter at hand, the rocket launch. Tuesday 22nd May was media day. Michael O'Donnell, Warren Williams and Grahame Coote were our Media coordinators and they did a fantastic job with press releases and media control. The media contingent at the launch consisted of 6 Australian television crews from channels 2, 7, 9 and 10, the UK Middlemarch Productions crew who are preparing a documentary on amateur rocketry around the world, several photographers and several print media. In addition to this, Warren and Gary Luckman were involved in numerous telephone interviews with national radio stations. Throughout the campaign our media coordinators ensured that a unified and consistent ASRI stance was presented and that all relevant information was passed to the media in a presentable and understandable form. Our sponsors were represented well with display boards and references in all media presentations The Ausroc Caps and shirts also appeared very prominently in all media stories. It should be noted that successful media coordination is a labour intensive and very tiring job. In addition to the Media contingent, approximately 25 invited sponsors and visitors were present to view the launch. Grant Waldram performed superbly in his role as public relations officer and was always available to answer questions and guide people in the right directions. The contribution of the media coordinators and the public relations officer should be further recognised due to the extra effort required as a result of 2 days delay in the launch. The delays meant that people were standing around the Instrumentation Building at the rangehead for great lengths of time and it is a credit to our media and public relations coordinators that they could maintain the peace for so long. The media day progressed smoothly with presentations being given by SQNLDR. Andrew Vanderven and Mike Wilksch from the RAAF as well as several general presentations about the Sighter/Zuni and Ausroc II-2 programs being given by ASRI members. Ausroc II-2 was installed on the launch rail on the Tuesday morning and, after a short lunch, the sponsors, visitors and media were invited to the launch pad to view the rocket on the launcher. This event was very well received and all were impressed with the achievements of the ASRI-Ausroc team. It became quite apparent from the media interest and comments that most of the Australian public do not recognise that Australia still has an excellent rocket range facility that can be used for a multitude of national and international scientific and technology development activities. Tuesday afternoon saw the launch of the first 3 sighter rockets by the RAAF firing officers. These rockets were used to calibrate range tracking equipment including radars, kinetheodolites and tracking cameras. The Monday and Tuesday were perfect launch days. However, as Murphy's law has it, the Wednesday morning was almost cyclonic. Gusting winds up to 10-15 m/s hammered the launcher area. The parachute recovery system pyrotechnics were installed at about 5.30am. At this stage a meeting was held with the range manager and the weather forecasts were examined. Ausroc II-2 was limited to side winds of 8 m/s and when it was evident that there was no wind relief in sight, a 1 day launch hold was called. This gave us the opportunity to fire the four ASRI 3" sighter rockets with test payloads for our student educational program. These surplus military rockets have a very high thrust to weight ratio so the strong winds did not present a safety problem in this case. The sighter rockets take off with an acceleration of approximately 30-40g. The first 3 of these had empty payload modules which were being tested for structural integrity and performance. All worked perfectly. The forth payload was designed by 2 ASRI members from Sydney. The vehicle suffered from an inflight breakup. The post flight analysis for this mission is provided as a separate article in this newsletter. Early Thursday morning the conditions looked good so we began the fuelling operation, helium, launcher elevation, kerosene, telemetry tests and by that time the winds had again picked up and exceeded the range safety specifications and again, after discussions with the range manager, the launch was postponed for another day. This involved a helium and kerosene dump and the lowering of the launcher. It was about this time that the RAAF started running out of travel allowance funds to continue the trial. However, the Officer Commanding Gp. Capt. John Baker agreed to extend the campaign by another 1 or 2 days to see the rocket launched. The RAAF personnel were incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the whole campaign. The Ausroc crew learnt much from their experience. Weather charts, forecasts and prognostics were constantly being faxed to the range for our perusal. Conditions looked acceptable (not ideal but beggars can't be choosers) for a launch on Friday morning. Numerous dirt roads link the various homesteads on the Woomera prohibited area and 2 of these required guards to ensure that no persons entered the range safety impact area during the trial. These 2 sites were both approximately 25 km from the rangehead in the middle of Australian gibber desert. A special thanks should be given to both Darren Laker and Steve Kollias, in their roles as temporary range road guards, for their patience over the 3 scheduled launch days. We again arrived at the rangehead at about 5.30am to commence the fuelling operation. The weather looked good, no cloud and light winds. So again the dummy sequence checks were performed, the helium was loaded, the rocket elevated and the kerosene loaded. At this stage the weather was rechecked and the go ahead was given for the LOX loading to commence at minus 52 minutes. The lox loading went quite smoothly but the wind was still increasing. By the time the lox loading and the final arming was complete a narrow cloud band was passing overhead. The ignition flare was inserted and connected to the firing circuit and the 3 Ausroc fuelling officers and 2 RAAF range safety officers returned to the blockhouse for the firing. The cloud cover affects the radar tracking so a 15 minute hold was initiated, with lox loaded, to allow the cloud band to disperse. The lox tank pressure relief valve worked well and kept the lox tank pressure at a fixed level. Once in the blockhouse, all that remained was to initiate the 2 minute sequencer and wait. During the wait one can only think 'what have we forgotten' and the tension begins to rise. After the 15 minute hold the cloud had cleared and the count resumed. minus 10 min.......5 min......4 min.....3 min minus 2 min ASRI launch Sequence is activated minus 1 min minus 30 sec minus 20 sec minus 10 sec Helium Valve opens and pressurises the tanks (confirmed by telemetry) minus 5 sec Ignition flare ignites and is confirmed minus 4 sec minus 3 sec minus 2 sec minus 1 sec minus 0.25 sec kerosene valve opened and is confirmed minus 0 sec lox valve opens. Thrust builds up From the blockhouse the launch could only be seen through a closed circuit monitor which only shows the launcher and nothing above it. From this viewpoint the launch looked fantastic. The visitors, sponsors and media, out on the balcony of the Instrumentation Building (IB), became ecstatic with wild cheering. The rocket took off and got out of sight. The media loved it and it aired on television everywhere in Australia that night. "Australia was back in the Space Race" - so the media portrayed it. ASRI was billed as Australia's space program future. Senator Chris Schacht, who is the minister for the Australian Space Office, sent faxes to Woomera to wish the team luck and offer congratulations for the success. However, the telemetry data received from the rocket during flight was not what was expected for a perfect flight. All telemetry (including the on-board video) ended at approximately +42 sec. indicating a premature impact. The range tracking videos indicated that the rocket plume became very fuel rich immediately after launch and left a black sooty trail. This sooty trail became a pristine white trail approximately 7-8 seconds after launch. It appears, at this stage, that the lox tank regulator was not supplying near enough helium to keep the lox tank at the constant flight pressure. As a result of this, the lox tank went into immediate blowdown. A maximum thrust of 7.5 kN was maintained for about 7 sec before decay. The nominal thrust should have been 11.5 kN. The launch acceleration was 3g as opposed to the expected 4g. The 7m/s winds and lower than expected rail exit velocity weathercocked the rocket into a lower QE than expected at that time of flight. The rocket reached approximately 2.4 km altitude and 6km range as opposed to the expected 9.6 km and 20 km respectively. There is still substantial quantities of data still to sift through to conduct a thorough investigation and this will be done in the near future. To add to the series of ill events, the rocket landed in a 2 x 4 km fenced area (one of only 2 at Woomera) that was used for bombing practice and may still have unexploded munitions inside. For this reason we were not able to recover the vehicle on the day. Recovery of the vehicle has since taken place and is the subject of another article in this newsletter. ASRI had prepared 4 Zuni rocket payloads to be launched during the trial week under the supervision of ASRI member Steven Kollias. However, due to the weather delays associated with the launch of Ausroc II-2, it was not possible to fire the Zuni rockets during this campaign. An alternative date for the launch of the Zuni rockets will be determined in the near future. In all, the Ausroc II-2 project and the Woomera campaign have been classed as a great accomplishment. The media portrayed the program in excellent light and we attracted the attention of the nation for several days including the politicians. ASRI has managed to meet all of its organisational objectives. Ausroc II-2 was built and test flown for approximately $30K and a huge amount of voluntary effort provided by a dedicated and visionary team. The success of this project is directly attributable to the support provided by the government and industry supporters. In particular: Australian Space Office. Australian Aviation Underwriting Pool. CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications. BOC Gases. RAAF - Aircraft Research and Development Unit. Department of Defence Ardebil Pty Ltd. ASRI wishes to thank each of these program sponsors for their support and commitment to the development of an Australian space industry. It is evident that this event has further enhanced ASRI's technical and managerial credibility. The project plan for the next vehicle, Ausroc III, is already being prepared. ASRI looks forward to the continuation of the Ausroc Program and the realisation of an Australian launch industry. "I was told and I forgot, I saw and I remembered, I did and I understood" - anon.