Throwing the Spear: My Trip to Woomera Steven S. Pietrobon 23 June 1995 I left Adelaide at 8:30 pm on Monday, 22 May 1995 on a Volvo bus heading North to Woomera where I had been invited bu the Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) to watch the launch of Ausroc II-2. Ausroc II-2 is an amateur rocket and is Australia's largest liquid fuel rocket ever made. It is nearly 6 m long, 250 mm in diameter and has a maximum thrust of 11.5 kN. During the bus trip I watched the movie "Maverick" with Mel Gibson as Maverick. It was an entertaining movie, although some parts were a bit hard to believe. At 12:05 am we stopped at Port Augusta to change buses. After waiting for an hour, we headed off to Woomera in a more noisier bus. They also showed "My Dad the Hero" but I tried to get some sleep. I had my pillow, blanket, ear plugs and eye shades, but I couldn't get to sleep properly. At 3:05 am I arrived in Woomera at the side of the small "rocket garden" with a Black Arrow, Bloodhound, Sea Slug, Skylark and other various missiles and planes. With some rough advice on where the ELDO hotel was, I headed off. I soon found some signs pointing to the hotel. Walking the completely empty streets was very strange. I felt I had time-warped back to the sixties. At the hotel, I soon discovered that there was no-one at the reception. I walked around the "Orbit bar" and the four separate hotel roome buildings called "Skylark", "Blue Steel", "Black Knight", and "Redstone". The buildings are named after various rockets and missiles that have flown at Woomera. I couldn't find no-one, so I tried to get some sleep on the corridoor floor in the Skylark where I had booked my room. The floor wasn't very comfortable and I didn't feel very secure so I didn't get any proper sleep. Around 6:00 am, people started to leave and I got up at 7:00 am. The Orbit bar was now open serving breakfast, but I had to wait until 8:00 am for the hotel reception to open. While waiting, I examined a strange looking Black Knight motor which burned kerosene and hydrogen peroxide. The motor body was one large cylinder with a rocket motor nozzle shaped inside. On top the motor was a small turbo pump. At 8:00 am, the lady finally came and I got the key to my room. I found out then that I was supposed to call the hotel the day before so that I could pick up my key when I arrived. Unfortunately, I wasn't told this when I made my booking. To make up for it, the hotel gave me a free breakfast. I had breakfast with Paul Wilson, who I had previously met at the International Space University (ISU) Summer Session in Toronto, Canada. Paul is a former englishman who is doing a Ph.D. in Queensland on remote sensing. He is also involved with ASRI. He told me how his students had recently successfully fired four 89 mm Sighter rockets in Queensland. Paul is also involved with getting an Australian Space Office (ASO) sponsored student to this year's ISU Summer Session. For some reason, ISU split the money between two students when only one student should have been selected. Paul now has to try and recover the situation and get the money to one student. After breakfast, I went to my hotel room to unpack and have a shave. I then went back to the front of the Orbit bar and met up with some people from Ausroc (who make and launch large amateur rockets). These two people were helping to organise the media, sponsors, and visitors (having their learned from Ausroc II, where the media got out of control). Things were much better organised now, with at least three people looking after us. Warren Williams from Ausroc had to fax a press release about the upcoming launch to 20 different radio stations. The hotel wanted to charge $2 a page, but Warren soon found a place where he could fax them for free. We then had a chat with Roman Buszynski from the ASO where we asked some questions about the upcoming review of the ASO. He said the review should be completed by the end of the year and be performed by an "interdepartmental committe" which will include people from the ASO. I also found out the current budget is $9M (not $6M as I thought before). This brings the space program to 53 cents per person in Australia and is certainly the largest space budget that Australia has ever had. Hopefully the review will be positive and that Australia's space program continues to grow. At 10:00 am we were supposed to head off to the Rangehead. However, the Channel 2 crew hadn't arrived yet, so we waited another five minutes in front of the ELDO hotel. The Channel 2 crew still hadn't arrived, so the sponsors and visitors went into the bus, while the media left in their own cars. At 10:05 am we left the Woomera township passing the rocket display. We headed North to the first gate which was past the airport. We then turned left and stopped in front of the boom gate. To our right was an old guard house. No-one seemed to be around, only a video camera watching us from the guard house. Behind the guard house was a water tower, a large hanger, a power substation and lots of other buildings and poles. Grant Waldman from ASRI went outside the bus (driven by Bob Dyer) to talk to the telecom unit to tell who was on the bus. The boom gate was then lifted where we turned left again towards the South, travelling about a 100 metres before we turned right towards the West. There used to be a gate to the left at this corner, but now a fence blocked it off. This barbed wire fence continues for about 200 metres to the West, following the road and then stops! The only things stopping you from going onto the road is an above ground 25 cm diameter water pipe, which follows the road along the South. As we headed North-West, it was very interesting looking at the landscape for the first time. There are almost no trees, with most of the vegetation being low-lying green-gray salt bushes. The dirt is very brown with many many rocks strewn about. It was almost Lunar in its desoloation. Alongside the road are many ditches that have been dug. A ditch starts out next to the road and goes out at about 30 degrees to about 20 metres out. The ditch then goes parallel to the road. Apparantly, these ditches are for the few days of heavy rain that Woomera gets every year. The ditches prevent floods from washing out the road. I also noticed long piles of brown rocks parallel to the road with stretches of dirt with almost no rocks on them next to the pile of rocks. These are apparantly where the many cables and lines have been buried. When it rains, water washes away the few rocks above where the cables have been placed. There are also many poles carrying power and signals criss-crossing across the landscape. All the old telephone poles (both wooden and metal) had been taken out and can be seen lying on the ground every few hundred metres. Some of green wooden poles looked so new, I wondered if they were being put into the ground. Hill markers also spot the countryside. These are made from two 50 cm diameter circular black plates at right angles to each other. The plates are placed on poles and look almost like a sphere from a distance. Another thing about Woomera is that it is very flat. You can see the horizon all the way out with practically nothing to block the view. The "hills" are only about 10 m high at most, with most of them being only a couple of metres high. Along the way, I also saw on my right a new yellow tractor next to some old telephone poles, a rock with a smiley face on it, and two big white water tanks with a trough next to it (although I didn't see any sheep). Nearing the end of the 40 minute ride, we passed the dry Koolymilka salt lake on our right. We then came up to a small valley where water used to flow into Koolymilka. Going up the embankment, you can see three of four cement slabs where some buildings used to be, overlooking Koolymilka. Continuing on, we came up the second gate. Two large white water tanks (with large numbers on them) are on the left. The guard house has aluminium mesh covers over all the windows. The causally dressed guard let us in, where we passed the explosives storage area to the left (where all the Sighter and Zuni rockets are stored). Down the road, the most obvious building is the large white Instrumentation Building (IB). It is about 10 m high with two large tracking dish antennas on the roof. Th outside of the building looks corrugated, giving the impression that it is made of steel. We got out the bus and were told to go upstairs where morning tea was waiting for us. Climbing up the stairs, you could see that the building is made of concrete, with corrugated sheets bolted onto the outside surface. This is because the launch site is only 1 km to the West of the IB and had to have some protection in case a rocket went wayward. The stairwell wasn't maintained very well, with paint peeling off the walls and the vinyl floor tiles coming off. Over many of the windows were large steel louvres which limited the view from them. The room that we were in was largely empty. All the old computers and consoles that had been there were removed. Only rectangular brown vinyl on the floor against the light green vinyl tiles showed where they had been. The room is very large, with a few chairs placed around the room. Morning tea was on two tables near the sink. Funnily enough, there was a ping pong table and dart- board. These helped to pass the hours during the many delays. To the North of the room, I helped to remove some panels over some windows. We could then see the gray test shops to the north where Ausroc II-2 was integrated. To the north of the test shops was a large gray hanger and to the east was the windowed white Explosives Building (EB). The EB is lightly constructed so as not to cause a worser explosion if something goes off. The door in the west of the room goes onto a wide balcony where the sounder rocket launch site can be clearly seen. Tall brown rails keep you falling off the balcony. The floor of the balcony is made from 30 cm x 30 cm cement tiles. The white grout between the tiles is lifting out, with a lot of the grout strewn across the floor. Rusted bolts are also interspersed along the floor. The west rail stops against a room and a microwave dish pointing north- west. At the launch site, a few small buildings can be seen along with many launch rails, one of them belonging to Ausroc II-2. The A-II launch rail was in the down position and looked like a triangle with a line down the middle. The rail was at the left of the launch site, with the NASA Black Brant rail to the right and two other rails to the right of that. At the far right was the small Sighter and Zuni launch rail. Going further to the right, the bunker periscope could be seen and then the entrance to the bunker. I took my first photo of the launch site, taking many more photos later in the day. The media was then briefed on the launch and any restrictions imposed on them. We were then briefed by a couple of people from the range. We were told the only places we could normally be was the briefing room, the large room, and the balcony. All other places were forbidden. The sequence of beeps that can be heard over the intercom were also explained. Two long beeps would be given at minus two minutes (no "T" is used in the countdown) along with CON2 saying "minus two minutes". CON2 is Janet Arbon (the voice of the Woomera Instrumented Range). Janet makes all the major announcements on the telecom, with all of us listening to hear if there's been another delay! At minus one minute, we have one long beep along with CON2 saying "minus one minute". At minus 30, 20, and 10 seconds we have three, two, and one short beeps, respectively (although -10 s sounds like a long beep). No announcements are made for these beeps, to allow any one with problems to have a clear channel to speak to. CON2 calls out "minus fifteen seconds" at -15 s (no beeps). We then hear "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep" counting down -5, -4, -3, -2, and -1 seconds. No beep is given at lift-off or ignition. The briefing room has a whole bunch of black chairs with a wooden table at front with an ancient overhead projector on top. At the front of the room, the sponsors were given a good plug, with their signs clearly displayed. The sponsors were the Australian Space Office, CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications (COSSA), BOC Gases (formerly CIG), and the Australian Space Insurance Group (ASIG). At the right of the room were the Ausroc I, II, III, and IV models and at the left, empty Sighter and Zuni rockets on specially made stands. The Sighter and Zuni rockets had been painted white with "ASRI" painted vertically down the side of the rockets. Mark Blair then got up and gave a talk about ASRI and the projects that it is doing, mainly concentrating on the Ausroc program. On one side of the room were some close-up photos of the ELDO launch site. Its amazing that the only thing left is the concrete flame duct, now shot up by the Australian army. On the other side is a detailed map of the range and the other end of the room gives some details of the glory days when Australia used to make its own solid propellant sounding rockets. After the briefing we had lunch, provided courtesy of ASRI. These were sandwhiches which you made up yourself. There were cheese slices, ham slices, tomatos, lettuce, and margerine for the bread if you wanted it. After lunch we went into the bus and headed for the rangehead. Before getting out, we were told to be careful not to trip over any wires lying on the ground and not to venture too far out into the range. Out on the pad, Ausroc II-2 (or A-2 as we would call it) was in a horizontal position. My first impression was that it looked much larger than what I thought. The base and nose of the rocket was painted black, with the rest of the rocket painted white. Above the fin unit were stickers of BOC Gases, COSSA, ASIG, and two stickers of the ASO at both ends of the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank. There were no stickers on the LOX tank since the cold made it difficult for the stickers to stay on. In large vertical letters, "AUSROC II 2" was written near the top of the rocket, with the camera between the "U" and the "S". There was also an Ardebil sticker at the top of the rocket. I took a few pictures of the rocket. Mark Blair then raised the rocket to the flight angle of 70 degrees by cranking a winch. The media loved this shot. There were TV crews from Channels 2, 7, 9, and 10 and a film crew from England. The film crew is called Middle March and is making a documentary called "The Rocket Men" on amateur rocketry. Handling the media was a big job for ASRI. ASRI wanted to make sure that they didn't look like a bunch of back yarders. Channels 2 and 7 had two crews there, one for news and the other for their current affairs program (7:30 Report and Today Tonight I think). There also were reporters from The Advertiser and another news group. Channel 7 even even brought out their own satellite transmission gear at great expense. When- ever something interesting would happen, the media would swarm around to make sure they caught the action. A lot of radio stations phoned in at the IB, keeping the ASRI media relations people very busy. It was great having the media there, giving all this great coverage for ASRI, but if you weren't careful they'll easily get under your feet, causing problems by being in places where they were told not to be. Needless to say, blood pressures and tensions went high a couple of times for both ASRI and the media. At the end of the day though, I think ASRI and the media both got what they wanted. After the rocket was winched up, Mark gave a bunch of interviews to the media. The A-2 crew then assembled beside the rocket for the now traditional group photo. I then walked around the rangehead looking at all the old launch rails that were there. The Black Brant rail looked pretty weathered to me, but apparantly is in good condition for use by NASA in a September launch campaign this year. I then got an opportunity to look in the bunker to the north of the pad. On the top of the bunker is a tall pole which is a periscope. Inside the bunker, the door to the periscope was blocked off. There was a lot of old gear in the bunker. In one room, Tzu-Pei Chen was performing for the media, turning the arm key on the launch control box and then pressing the launch button. The launch control box has three keys and two buttons. The red button starts the launch sequence and the yellow button aborts the sequence. One key arms the system, while another key is used to allow limited operations after the abort button has been pressed. I think the other key arms the payload pyrotechnics. I then left the bunker and headed back to the bus after having one last look around. Just before the car park are red signs with boxes on them. This is where you put any dangerous materials such as cigarettes and matches before going onto the pad. I opened one box, but it was empty. After everybody got back on the bus, we headed back to the IB. The next scheduled item were two 89 mm Sighter firings. These were non- ASRI Sighters and were to allow the Aircraft Research Development Unit (ARDU) staff at the range to get some practice firing and tracking rockets. The last rocket launch at Woomera was Ausroc II on 22 October 1992 and the staff needed to get back to speed. The Sun was shining during the afternoon, and I had to take off my jumper. I also put some sunscreen on my face as it was starting to cook a little. The five minute Sighter countdown started at 3 pm. The Sighter took off and could be clearly seen as flares were attached to the fins. There was a small puff of smoke and then whoosh! Three seconds later, we heard the Sighter and then just as suddenly it was quiet again as the Sighter only burns for a couple of seconds. The Sighter propellant burns outside-in with an initial acceleration of some 30-40 g's. The orange glow of the flares were easily seen, following an arc almost to the ground. About half an hour later, another Sighter was fired with similar results. These Sighters used flat heads, which slowed them up compared to the Sighters that were scheduled to be fired on Thursday. After seeing my first two launches we went back into the bus and headed back to Woomera. I went up to my room where I started writing this report for an hour. I then went to the Oasis for dinner. The Oasis was built by the Americans for use by the crews at the Nurrungar Defense Support Program (DSP) ground station near Woomera. Other visitors are also welcolm at the Oasis which has a six-lane bowling alley, video hire, computer games, two pool tables, a dining area, bar, and a disco. Apparantly, the disco doesn't get used much becuase smoking is not allowed and the place closes at midnight. The menu on the wall had plenty of variety, if you liked hot dogs and hamburgers! I ordered a chili-burger with chips. I was expecting some of the Ausroc crew to be there, but no-one showed up. I then went to the ELDO hotel and found everyone to be there! After talking for an hour or so, I finally went back to my room for a shower and a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was launch day, but the front on the Channel 2 weather map looked ominous. It was near Woomera and the pressure lines were tight, indicating high winds. I didn't have an alarm clock, so I was a bit worried that I would not wake up in time to be at the bus by 8:00 am. I woke up several times after 5:00 am., each time checking my watch to see what time it was and then going back to sleep. At 7:00 am, I got up and prepared myself. I looked out the window and could see a cloudy sky and some wind blowing through the gum trees. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't launch today. At 7:30 am I was in front of the ELDO hotel. I then went inside the hotel and saw some of the other visitors sitting down. We talked a bit and then went outside. After a few minutes we went inside the bus. At 8:00 am, three students came running towards the bus, just making it in time. We headed off for the rangehead for a second time. When I got on the balcony, the wind was blowing hard from the south. I didn't bring my jacket and it was quite cold. On the rangehead, the rail was in the raised position. Kerosene fuelling had not even commenced. At around 9:30 am, Janet Arbon announced that the Ausroc II-2 launch would be rescheduled for tomorrow. The cross winds were exceeding the 8 m/s limit, gusting to greater than 10 m/s. Instead, the Sighter firings and perhaps the Zuni firings would be held today. At around 11:00 am, the first ASRI Sighter was fired. This Sighter had an empty pointed nose. The body of the rocket is painted white with ASRI AUSTRALIA in black letters down the side. The nose was painted orange. With the much more aerdynamic nose, the Sighter shot straight up to the bottom of the clouds, the orange flares allowing the Sighter to be traced. I lost track of the rocket once it entered the clouds. Half an hour later, the second ASRI Sighter was fired. This Sighter had a longer nose. This time however, the flares came off, so it was impossible to visually track the rocket. All you could see was the flares smoke on the launch pad. I heard someone say that the guts of the flares had just fallen out, but I'm not sure if this is true or not. We then had lunch, during which some rain came down. Woomera is supposed to have 300 cloud free days a year, but the first time I go there, it rains! Talk about bad luck. After lunch (make your own sandwhiches again) I washed the dishes and tidied up a bit. I didn't want the ARDU staff getting a bad impression of us, by leaving a mess every day. The next two Sighters were fired early that afternoon. The third Sighter again had the longer nose. All I could see this time was a small puff of smoke on the launch pad and the sound of the blast-off (which is a bit hard to describe). I'm not sure if flares were attached to this Sighter. If flares were attached, they must have not ignited. Half an hour later, the fourth and last ASRI Sighter was fired. This Sighter had a substantial payload. The payload was about 10 cm in diameter and over 0.5 m long. A door was cut into the side with a parachute inside. The launch was quite spectacular. I was at the northern end of the IB observation deck. Ian French asked me to closely observe where the Sighter and its parachute (actually a bollute) would land. The Sighter took off and the flares came off, arcing on either side of the Sighter. I then lost sight of the Sighter, but others could see that the bollute had deployed and was floating to the ground. With some help, I soon spotted the bollute, but the Sighter was not attached to it. The bollute headed north-east, landing north of the IB and to the west of the test shops. Some of the Ausroc crew got in a car and drove off to pick the bollute up. I saw them walk to the bollute, take some pictures, and then return to the car (which was behind one of the test shops) with the bollute. The car then stopped at a test shop before returning to the IB. I then went outside to see the bollute. A small hole was ripped in it and the multi-coloured cord was cut at an angle where the Sighter was supposed to be attached. The first three Sighters would be extremely difficult to recover because they would the enter ground nose first, burying themselves into the ground. The speculation was on as to what went wrong with the fourth ASRI Sighter. We would have to wait until the launch campaign was over for the fourth Sighter and Ausroc II-2 to be recovered. From what was seen of the Sighter launch (which the media didn't photograph, they were busy doing other things) it looked like the two fins carrying the flares had ripped off and gone on their separate ways. The fins were a much larger design made by one of the ASRI members. The Sighter would then have become unstable, forcing the bollute door open and cutting the bollute cord. I went back upstairs and soon found out that it was too late in the day for the Zuni firings. They would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon, provided that Ausroc II-2 was launched. We then all got back onto the bus and headed back to the township. Along the way, I followed the water pipeline from the IB. The pipeline is on the south side of the road, where it is sometimes buried underground and sometimes sitting above ground on small concrete pillars. From the IB, only the pillars could be seen. This section of pipe must have been above ground in the past, but was then buried. Sometimes, at a major join in the pipe, water leaked out. The plants growing on the ground surrounding the joint would be bright green, compared to the grey-green of the surrounding land. At Woomera, I dropped off my bag in my room and went to the rocket display. In the main display area was a Skylark, Bloodhound, Sea Slug, Black Arrow, Ikara, some bombs and a jet aircraft (a Viper a I think). Across the road was a Canberra bomber and behind that some old basketball courts with various various rockets and missiles being restored. The main object that could be seen was the Redstone that launched WRESAT which had been recovered from the desert a few years earlier. There was also a Black Knight with one of the four engines missing which could be found in the foyer of the ELDO hotel. I was amazed to see a Blue Steel standoff missile. Its a wonderful looking weapon, with a pointy nose, small fins at the front, and larger wings at the back which droop down at the ends, giving it a mean look. The Blue Steel was painted blue! Other sights in the courts was a multistage sounding rocket (with a strange two pointed nose) and an army vehicle of some kind. There was also lots of small missiles and bombs. The only main rocket missing was a Blue Streak. The Redstone's engine was crushed, but the main body's condition wasn't bad. You could see where the white paint had covered up the original green with "US ARMY" down the side. The Sun was going down and I headed off to the ELDO hotel after dropping my camera in my room. Some of the people involved with the Sighter firing were there and were discussing what went wrong and how to fix the problem. A better way of deploying the parachute seemed to be the main problem. Roy Singh wanted to use electric motors and other electro-mechanical means, but others were suggesting pyrotechnics. Roy didn't like pyros since he wanted a system he could build in his garage. A former Woomera worker (now stamp collector) offered a free meal to the Ausroc II-2 crew at the Oasis. After making sure it was all-right if I could go (provided I pay for my own meal) most of us headed to the Oasis. There I ordered a club sandwhich (not feeling like another hamburger!). I later found out that there is a separate menu I could have ordered from with a lot more variety. During dinner, the Channel 2 7:30 Report came on the TV. We all rushed to the screen when they did a segment on Ausroc. Norbert Leidinger's garage got a bit of a mention, where Ausroc II-2 was mostly made. They also showed Mark Blair winching up Ausroc II-2 (again!) with the mention of "kids" which some of the crew didn't like. After dinner, most of us went to the bowling alley next door. I watched Mark and his friends play a round. When the A-2 crew left at around 8:30 (for a 5:00 am start tomorrow morning) I joined and played a round. I didn't do too bad, getting over 130. I think the last time I played was when I was a teenager! After bowling, I went to bed. Will A-2 be launched tomorrow? The weather was going to be better, but was it going to be good enough? Thursday, 25 May, I got up again in the first floor of the Skylark rooms. The room I was in was originally two rooms. A wall separated the two single beds, with one room having a sink, fridge, and cupboard. Staying there really made me feel like I was back in the sixties, waiting for another Europa launch. Time warping back to the present, we headed off again to the IB. Before leaving, I payed off the hotel bill. This time the count was at a much more advanced state. The kerosene and helium had already been loaded into A-2, but we were in a hold at minus 60 minutes. The skies were relatively clear, but there was a large bank of clouds heading straight for us from the south-west. The winds were also strong. I found myself a corner on the observation deck that wasn't so windy. I also brought my jacket which helped a lot. Since Ian French was busy with his video camera, he lent me his binoculars so I could watch what was going on the pad. The count then resumed for another four minutes to prepare the Sighter and was held at -56 minutes. We then waited and at around 10:00 am the count resumed. The Sighter was fired at -54 minutes. The weather wasn't getting any better so the count was held at -50 minutes, just before the loading of the LOX would begin. By this time, the cloud cover was nearly total. An indefinite hold was declared at 11:00 am. We would wait it out in the hope the weather would get better. So we waited, and waited, and waited! Lunch time came around, but we had to wait for the food to arrive from Woomera. In the meantime, I played some darts, hanging around the briefing room where it was a little warmer. At about 1:00 pm, Mark Blair came out with one of the range people to announce to the media that the launch was off for the day. Thankfully, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and ARDU had agreed to let ASRI use the range for another day for another launch attempt tomorrow. They even mentioned using Saturday if that was necessary, but the weather maps showed the weather on Friday as promising. However, we still had to wait at the IB as our bus driver had taken some of the media to Launch Area 6, where Blue Streak and Europa were launched from. Some of the younger university students kept themselves amused playing football behind the IB. Finally, Bob came back and we returned to Woomera. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing some of this. I wanted to get as much down as possible, because I knew the longer I waited, the more I would forget about the campaign. That evening I had dinner at the ELDO hotel with the A-2 and ASRI crew. The 7:30 Report again had a segment on Ausroc, interspersing the report with segments from a stop animation cartoon about a dog and his rocketship. The last bit showed the dog's red rocket waiting to take off, until the dog suddenly realised he had to release the handbrake. He let go of the handbrake and away the rocketship went, with us laughing. Mark left and I told him to make sure he had the handbrake released for tomorrow's launch! A bunch of us then went to the Oasis where we played some pool. I played a game of pool with Rob Graeme's son and lost! Rob's son had managed to get to get his ball in front of the eight ball which I was trying to get in. When I tried to hit the 8-ball, I hit the other ball in and sent the black in as well, thus loosing the game. The rest of the gang then left and I stayed to watch the Americans play at the bowling alley. After each bowl, they would slap their hand against another player. A good bowl would be a palm slap up in the air. A clenched fist low down would be a bad bowl. There were mostly good players, but there were also some excellent and some bad players. At 10:15 pm I retired for the night. The next morning, we had to go up to the rangehead in individual cars. The bus was not available. Before leaving, I paid for my extra night at the hotel, having delayed my bus trip back to Adelaide by one day the previous afternoon. If the rocket launched today, I would pick up my bag from my hotel room and drop off the key in the hotel lobby tonight. My bus was scheduled to leave at 11:55 pm. The four cars left from the front of the hotel at 8:00 am as scheduled. However, we waited for another 10 minutes in the Woomera shopping centre as Grant had to pick up some things there. On the way up, we passed the old LOX plant on our left, just north of Woomera. I believe it is now used as a sprint car stadium. Getting to the Koolymilka gate, I saw a trail of smoke going up in the air. A Sighter had just been fired. The time was 8:36 am, indicating that the countdown had started 30 minutes earlier. After discussing the situation to the guard, we drove off to the IB. We had previously planned to walk there, so as to minimise the number of cars at the IB. There were very few spectatactors there, unlike the previous two days where many people had come down to see the launch. As soon as we got to the IB, we rushed to the observation deck, with its cement tiles and broken morter. At the north end of the deck, the three remaining TV crews had set themselves up. Channel 9 had left the previous day, having arranged to get footage from the Channel 2 crew. The wind was a lot milder, with only a few clouds scattered around the sky. To the south though was a bunch of clouds headed north. The wind this time was coming from the south. The LOX truck wheeled up to the side of A-2 and LOX loading began. There was enough LOX for only two fills. The kero and helium from the prevous days launch attempt had been flushed from the rocket. New kero and helium had been loaded this morning. I couldn't use the same spot I had yesterday, as the Middle March crew had taken it! At the end of the LOX fill, a stream of LOX vapour could be seen coming from near the top of the rocket. The vapour stream stopped when the LOX tank was capped off. At 9:15 am, the count was held at -15 minutes. Low cloud had approached from the south and was over where A-2 would fly. However, the cloud was heading directly north, and a large gap in the cloud could be seen in the south. The count then resumed at 9:25 am and continued for another 10 minutes. During this time, the ignition flare was installed inside the rocket motor. At 9:35 am, the count was held at -5 minutes. The tension and excitement was building rapidly! It looked very likely that we would launch. The gap in the cloud could be clearly seen to the south and was rapidly moving north. Soon, the cloud was nearly gone, and a clear path was laid for A-2. At 9:50 am the count resumed. We listened to the beeps then, "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep" we had lift-off!!! A trail of yellow flame and white smoke left the rail, then A-2 veered SWW into the wind as it rocketed skyward. A few seconds later black smoke and bursts of orange flame came from the rocket engine, yet A-2 continued steadily upward. Soon after, we heard the lift-off and the bangs and pops from the unsteady exhaust. A few seconds later, the exhaust became white and steady again, and A-2 continued upward. Then, just 12 seconds after launch, we had engine out, about 3 seconds earlier than expected. When it was clear that A-2 had left the pad we all cheered! The media then came around to ask some of us what we thought of the launch. It was certainly spectacular, but I wondered if that black smoke had affected performance. I then went to the briefing room where Mark Blair and a RAAF officer were going to give a briefing. While waiting, I asked some of the Ausroc crew how high it went. They pointed to the media and said to wait for Mark to announce it. I was a bit perplexed by this. What's the big deal? Mark and the officer came in to a large applause from the audience. They declared the launch was successful and the RAAF would be ready to help out with launching Ausroc III. To the question of how high did A-2 go and whether or not the parachute deployed, Mark said the team was still "analysing the data". I then went downstairs to the telemetry room where it became pretty obvious that A-2 had underperformed. I heard comments that the trajectory plot was very small, more like a Sighter firing than what was expected for A-2 (an altitude of 9600 m and range of 25 km). A good estimate of the altitide and range could have been obtained from the plotters in the control room, as had been done on previous Sighter firings. I was a bit annoyed that this wasn't done and the information given at the briefing. I also got a quick look at the telemetry plots. The LOX valve had only opened 85%, but I was latter told that this should have provided over 95% of the flow since the valve was oversized. The engine chamber pressure plot was a bit weird. It was high, dropped low, and then came back up again. The LOX valve could be explained by the rocket unplugging the nitrogen pressure line to the valves before the valve fully opened. The black smoke could be explained by there not being enough oxygen, the engine being basicly flooded by kerosene. The LOX valve problem should have had only had a very minor effect since the flow rate should have been sufficient. The exact cause of the problem was still a mystery to me. I then saw the video from the rocket. The picture was inititally black and white (B&W), then turned to colour once A-2 was clear of the pad. The launch pad could be seen quickly moving away. As the rocket went higher, the picture went B&W again and horizontal lines appeared in the middle of the picture. The rocket was in a beautiful slow roll. You could see that A-2 went above a few scattered clouds in the area, slowly turning towards the ground. The clouds then flew past and a few seconds later, static. The flight time was less than a minute. The expected flight time was about five minutes. The parachute timer did not time out and the parachute did not release. I guess at that point in time I knew the launch was not a complete success. It was a great achievement in getting the rocket off the pad, but I felt we still had a long way to go before we could try Ausroc III with success. If we can't make a simple rocket work, what chance do we have with A-3? I started to feel that the problems with Ausroc II need to be corrected and tested on Ausroc II-3. This time with a full static firing of A-II-3, which hadn't been done on A-II-2. The media may think that A-II-2 was a success, but I knew different. If we fool ourselves that it was a complete success, then we are simply asking for disaster with Ausroc III. We need a firm foundation for Ausroc III, and that has to be a successful Ausroc II firing. Ausroc III has active guidance and 35 kN of thrust! I think we have a lot more to learn before we can make A-III successful. A-II is in the path for obtaining that knowledge and we should use it! The media then came down to get a copy of the rocket video. They tried a video-to-video copy, but the sync pulses were not clear. This made the recording pretty bad. The media also said the signal would not survive being passed down to Adelaide. They then tried to film the video using their video camera and their TV. However, their TV was too sensitive to the sync pulses. A better picture was obtained by just using a normal TV. I then went upstairs where I heard one of the media people say on the phone that A-2 went 6 km downrange. Going outside, Mark was headed off some where and I asked him if it was still possible to arrange a visit to Area 6. He said yes, so I found Grant Waldeman and told him this. Grant then arranged the visit with the ARDU staff, getting permission from Janet Arbon. When I went outside, I found out that there might not be a seat for me! Mark then appeared and solved the problem by suggesting that both four wheel drive Sabaru's go. This was quickly arranged and off we went. We stopped at Koolymilka gate to tell the guard where we were going and then headed off down the main road. The only marker to the Area 6 road was a small pole with a small fading red plastic flag on it. Turning right, the first sign of degradation was found. Most of the bitumen had crumbled off, making the traverse very bumpy. A disused water pipe on the right could also be seen. We then stopped at a junction that continued ahead to Area 6 or turned right. On either side of the road turning right were two poles. After some discussion, we turned right towards where the Redstones had been launched in the sixties. There is not much to see. There are two bunkers that had been filled in. Some of the sandbags could be seen at the entrance of the low lying bunkers (the sand in the bags have gone rock hard over the years). The pad is one long strip of concrete, with two rails along it. On each end were two big circles of bolts, now level with the ground. The western end had some small dry shrubs. The only standing structures were three concrete observation rooms place around the pad. Each room is about 1.5 x 1.5 m and 2 m high. Inside is a round concrete pillar in front of the open window. The only users now are sheep and birds as evidenced by the droppings and bird nests inside the room. This place was where WRESAT was launched into orbit. I was glad to have been there. Next stop was the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) IB, just before the Area 6 launch pads. To the left were some collapsed buildings and on the right was a large water tank. The IB is on the left of the road going south. It is a large single story square building. The middle of the building is open, where a lawn presumably used to exist. Unfortunately, the Special Air Service (SAS) have found this building and it is now riddled with bullet holes. Larger holes can be found where more powerful weapons have been used. Blank rounds cover the ground. One large room to the south has been gutted with fire. This is presumably where a practise hostage rescue went wrong with a smoke grenade setting fire to the room. Trust the military to destroy a historic building that could have been used in the future. For some strange reason, some of the bullet holes had been filled in. The launch pads are not visible from the IB. There are some stairs in the square which probably led to an observation deck above the burnt out room. We then headed to the main launch site. What a travesty. The military just has no sense of history or a vision for the future when it comes to space. The site was destroyed as much as humanly possible. Didn't nobody think that the pad could be reused in the future? That it could be a future tourist attraction? Now the large concrete flame duct stands out, its concrete bridge blow away, riddled with SAS bullet holes. I walked under the now gone bridge and around to where the gantry used to stand on its rails. The rails are still there, covered in surface rust. Between the rails are the remains of an SAS camp with burnt firewood in the middle. Occasionally you'll find empty brass cartridges where the SAS had taken pot shots at the flame duct. I found a triangular fire hydrant sign side lying on the ground. It would have made a good souvenir, bit it was too big for my bag. Other little things could also be seen, such as a fuse. The writing on the white ceramic was gone, the metals ends perhaps attaching themselves to some important circuit in a long gone past. The rest of the group had walked down to the base of the duct and I soon followed. Some of the tiles in the flame duct had been filled in with cement. Most probably to be shot at again by the SAS. We then headed off to the other side of the gulley on which the flame duct stands. There were some bullet hole riddled double deck observation posts and a grave! The grave is of someone who must have worked at this site and was buried there in the eighties when he died. It was getting late, so we headed off back to the rangehead IB, going over the disused and broken road for the last time. Behind the IB, I waited for a lift back to the township. Back in Woomera, I went to my room and packed my stuff, ready to leave that night. I then went off the ELDO hotel where some of the ASRI and Ausroc people had gathered. The ELDO hotel gave us two huge trays of chips, one with tomato sauce on it. The champaign wasn't flowing though. The mood was pretty subdued, more of relief in getting A-2 off the pad. Mark then came around. We ordered dinner. Friday night was all you can eat fish and chips, but I didn't particularly feel for that. I ordered a chicken schnitzel instead. We all listened intently to the Channel 9 and 2 news reports of the launch. The reports both said the launch was successful, with Channel 2 saying the rocket reached 10 km high and 25 km range! We all cheered! Mark then commented to Janet Arbon and some of the ARDU staff, "See, your radars are wrong!". We only wish. Myself, Rob with his wife and son then headed to the Oasis. Mark and some others then followed where we played pool (Aussie rules) with some Americans there. We lost three games in a row! We won the fourth game though, after which we played a couple of rounds of bowling ball. In the first game, I scored a strike on a bowl. I then bowled two gutter bowls! Rob then changed my name to "Mr Consistency" on the computer! I scored only 88 that round. Mark then went off to bed as he still had to finish up on the range the next day. I then played a game with Rob, his wife, and his son. I did much better this time. On my last bowl, my score was 113. Rob only had to get seven or more pins to come in second in front of me. He bowled, knocking down five pins on one side. His next bowl was gutter! I came second by one point! Rob's wife was the clear leader though, getting many strikes during the game with her slow bowls. We finally wrapped up, and I went back to my hotel room for what I thought was the last time. I took my contact lenses out and packed the rest of my stuff. On the way to the hotel I suddenly remembered that I had left my blanket and pillow in the room. Picking that stuff up, I dropped my key off in the hotel lobby and went to the Oasis. There, I read a US Air Force magazine article on DSP's where they didn't even mention Nurrungar. Hey guys', the secret's out you know. The Oasis then closed at 11:30 pm and I went to the bus stop to wait for the bus, using my blanket to keep my legs warm in the cold. Well, the bus arrived and myself and another guy with his bike got on board. I tried to get some sleep, but the bus was noisy and uncomfortable, with two blokes talking loudly at the back. We stopped at Port Augusta to change busses and we finally got back to Adelaide at 6:00 am. The end.