Here is some video of Alyssa and I launching model rockets. We put a little wireless camera on the rockets and taped the video. Most launches were disasters since we were just taping the camera and battery on the outside of the rocket.

By the time I got serious and built a camera pod that housed the camera and battery internally in its ejectable pod with its own parachute, the camera was on the blink. The first launch with the pod nose dived into the dirt. You can see in the video some flames from the ejection charge but the rocket was already on the way down. The nose must have been on to tight and it didnt eject.

I reworked things a little and added a protective clear disk that would stop the camera window from getting charred. The disk would seperate and fall on its own. The last launch with the camera pod was flawless. Good flight, good ejection, good parachute deployment and a nice slow drift to the ground. The problem is that video is nothing but a white blur because the white balance on the camera was all out of wack. It had been though several firey crashes, I can't really blame it for failing.

email questions and comments to cybrown@cp-tel.net

Our first rocket launch. It didn't fly to well, but we got a few amusing images from it.

Rocket Video 6-19-05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5qiUBQFDk

A few launches that we tried with a new rocket. The first and last launches were pretty good. Seeing the second stage come off or the engine eject out the back is cool.

Rocket Video 6-29-05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npyPUoLFtdY

Alyssa and I built painted and launched another rocket with a camera. This time the camera was inside its own pod with a parachute.
Unfortunately, the rocket nose dived into the dirt before the pod was ejected. You can see the video during the launch when it was looking down through a hole in the bottom of the rocket.