The final flight of Pioneer II

Rocket: Pioneer II
Date of launch: 25th June 2008
Time of launch: 10:30pm
Location: Undisclosed, Relatively Empty Area
Observers: My dad and I

Like all rockets of the "Pioneer" edition, this rocket is of small stature. Composed of a mere 4 sparklers, it can fit into the nose of a regular plastic bottle, from which, in fact, it was launched.

Pioneer II is almost identical to it's predecessor, Pioneer I, except that it had a more balanced nozzle and a lower stability stick, which proved effective in stabilising it's flight (since it flew much farther and straighter than Pioneer I).

It was a cool wednesday night, and my previous launch site was locked up, so I launched the rocket Pioneer II in a different location. This launch proved to be more successful than the previous, with maximum altitude well over 30 feet. The rocket started it's fiery launch at nearly 90 degrees angle, but soon went slightly sideways (about 80 degrees) after the propellant was consumed. Last seen of Pioneer II was a smoldering trail of some rapidly descending bits some 10 metres away. The remains of this rocket were never recovered.



For the first time, here is a video of the launch! Observe the rocket frame by frame as it blasts off into the night sky and takes it's place among the stars before falling back to a cold, hard earth, never to move again.

Video is in portrait, so please tilt your head 90 degrees. Thanks.

| HCH - 11:29 PM |