ROCK's May, 2008, Launch

The theme of May's launch was boost-gliders. A number of the winged rockets took flight.

Carl Campbell announced that his Intrepid boost-glider would make it's last flight.

But since it turned in a nice performance, he may change his mind.

Robb and Malcolm entertained us with a series of Cosmic Cobra drag races.

I spent most of the day experimenting with my new Casio EX-F1 camera.

The camera takes still images at up to 60 fps. You can set it so that you can press the shutter release when you see the rocket launch and have the camera save images from just before that moment until you release the shutter. Using this feature, I can capture a good shot of almost every launch.

Even those small fast-moving rockets are easy to capture.

In addition to taking stills, the new camera takes high-speed videos at up to 1200 fps.

Click to View Video

The above video combines all the high-speed videos I took Saturday. My favorite segments are the Space Shuttle which does a slow, realistic roll, and Ryan's Atlas 5 lifting off majestically under power from three D12 motors.

Additional photos from the May launch are in the gallery at:

http://www.payloadbay.com/gallery/v/rock/2008-05-03/