Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-10-2008 09:41 AM
From the Canton Repository:
As a child, Eves watched the historic launch of the Saturn V in 1969 on TV. Eves was captivated with space travel.
"Nobody ever built a rocket that did what the Saturn V did for this country," he said. "It was a victory."
Decades later, the Saturn V is serving as inspiration for Eves' most-epic project: Launching a 1,700-pound rocket powered by nine motors. Projected to reach about 4,000 feet, the rocket, 40 inches in diameter, will be propelled by solid-rocket fuel, generating an estimated 8,000 pounds of thrust and blazing a 30-foot trail of fire. Assembled by crane at the launch site on farmland in Price, Md., the rocket will be attached to a 50-foot steel-framed tower.
Four military-style parachutes, each 28 feet in diameter, will bring the 20-foot stage back to Earth. The amateur rocket is a 1/10 scale version of the legendary NASA rocket.
Rockets Magazine is the main sponsor. Another sponsor is PPG Industries, which supplied the paint. The magazine's website includes a special section about Eves' project.
Mr Meek Member
Posts: 353 From: Chattanooga, TN Registered: Dec 2007
posted 08-12-2008 11:04 AM
Am I correct in inferring that it's a single stage? That's going to be quite the feat. Are there currently any plans for any of the potentially interested cable networks (or production companies) such as Discovery to capture the launch on something other than a handycam?
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-12-2008 05:21 PM
Indeed, it does appear to be a single-stage Saturn V:
The Saturn V will be powered by a matrix of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors surrounding a central 77,000ns P-Class motor.
Note they are offering sponsorship of each motor and the sponsor gets to "keep the motor hardware" after flight. Only one N motor ($1,000) and the one central P motor ($4,000) remain available.
Jay Chladek Member
Posts: 2272 From: Bellevue, NE, USA Registered: Aug 2007
posted 08-19-2008 12:10 AM
Well, as I like to say when it comes to big rocket projects like this...
"It will either be spectacular or spectacular."
I don't know if I've heard of anybody who has tried a cluster firing of that many Ns at once (let alone Ns with a P motor). It is going to make one heck of a loud noise, whatever it does.
stsmithva Member
Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
posted 08-19-2008 07:54 AM
That was smart of them to do a public unveiling well before construction is actually finished- it raised publicity and hopefully donations.
The launch is scheduled for spring 2009 in Price, Maryland- about 20 miles northeast of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the Eastern Shore. DC-area CS members: ROAD TRIP!
davidcwagner Member
Posts: 798 From: Albuquerque, New Mexico Registered: Jan 2003
posted 08-19-2008 07:23 PM
Are there going to be any flown covers? I would pay to have some covers flown.
stsmithva Member
Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
posted 08-19-2008 08:39 PM
That's a good idea. You could contact them on the website linked above to see if they are already planning on doing so, or if they would be willing to do so for a donation.
stsmithva Member
Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
posted 03-25-2009 06:38 PM
I checked the project's website last night, and I see that they now have a launch date coming up soon: Saturday, April 25th.
The possibility of flown covers was mentioned above. There won't be covers on board, but if you click on "Memorabilia" at the bottom of the page, you'll see that if you donate $50 towards the project you will get a flown patch... designed and signed by collectSPACE member Tim Gagnon!
(I was serious when I proposed a road trip for local cS members, but now my wife and baby and I will be driving there and continuing east after the launch to Rehoboth Beach. Please let me know if you will be at the launch, though! Let's have a cS contingent there!)
history in miniature Member
Posts: 600 From: Slatington, PA Registered: Mar 2009
posted 03-25-2009 09:32 PM
80 lbs of propellant in the p motor! Are you coming to pick me up?
ilbasso Member
Posts: 1522 From: Greensboro, NC USA Registered: Feb 2006
posted 03-25-2009 10:18 PM
Dude, I am SOOOOO there!
teopze Member
Posts: 180 From: Warsaw, Poland Registered: May 2008
posted 04-20-2009 02:26 PM
Just thought some of you, particularly Apollo fans, might be interested.
On April 25, 2009, history will be made. At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor. The estimated altitude of this single stage effort will be between 3,000 and 4,000 feet and the project will be recovered at apogee. In a special to Rocketry Planet, author Mark B. Canepa and ROCKETS Magazine wish to share Steve Eve's story with the readers here.
WAWalsh Member
Posts: 809 From: Cortlandt Manor, NY Registered: May 2000
posted 04-23-2009 02:22 PM
In this age of computer, streaming video and digital cameras, is there any plan to broadcast the launch over the net?
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-25-2009 12:05 PM
No live video (apparently internet access at the farm in Maryland is limited) but first reports via Twitter are that the launch was successful!
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-25-2009 02:29 PM
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-25-2009 03:58 PM
Photographs by The Space Review's Jeff Foust (click on images for flickr set):
dwmzmm Member
Posts: 82 From: Katy, TX USA Registered: Dec 2006
posted 04-25-2009 04:10 PM
Well done and great job, Steve and team! Makes me proud to call you a fellow model rocketeer!
Rob Joyner Member
Posts: 1308 From: GA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
posted 04-25-2009 04:23 PM
What a sight! Just a little faster ascent than the real thing!
It looked like the parachutes almost got tangled! Was there a camera aboard?
328KF Member
Posts: 1234 From: Registered: Apr 2008
posted 04-25-2009 04:42 PM
I just got back from the launch, and it was quite spectacular. Much like a shuttle launch, the video and photos just don't do it justice... Steve's rocket was a monster!
I caught up with him at the landing site and he looked very, very relieved to have his model back in good shape (can't say "one piece", as it came down in three sections). The bottom section, comprised of the S-IC and S-II, landed standing upright in the field, looking like it was ready to launch again!
I don't want to put a guess-timate on the number, but a lot of folks turned out to watch this... very strange coming around the corner and seeing a few hundred cars parked out in the fields of the Eastern shore.
Since the launch is already pretty well documented, here are my landing site photos. It had the feel of being at a Soyuz recovery! Several astronauts (Bean, Cunningham, Lousma, Garriott, Kerwin) had signed the CM.
ShuttleDiscovery Member
Posts: 152 From: Registered: Feb 2007
posted 04-25-2009 05:00 PM
WOW! I was amazed at how fast it flew off the pad, compared to the real thing! Great job!
Rizz Member
Posts: 1208 From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii Registered: Mar 2002
posted 04-25-2009 05:46 PM
Way to go guys, that was very cool!
KSCartist Member
Posts: 2896 From: Titusville, FL USA Registered: Feb 2005
posted 04-25-2009 06:02 PM
OUTSTANDING!
All they needed was Walter Cronkite doing the color commentary.
CONGRATULATIONS Steve and the entire team. Thanks for letting me play a small part.
SpaceAholic Member
Posts: 4437 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-25-2009 07:18 PM
Hope to see the model occupy a place of honor on display at NASM one day...what an incredible achievement!
ilbasso Member
Posts: 1522 From: Greensboro, NC USA Registered: Feb 2006
posted 04-25-2009 08:14 PM
I'm so sorry I missed it - we had a death in the family and I had to be out of town. Can you do it again for me next weekend?
CONGRATULATIONS!! Spectacular launch footage!
history in miniature Member
Posts: 600 From: Slatington, PA Registered: Mar 2009
posted 04-25-2009 10:02 PM
Even today, one small man, with one big dream, can still ignite the passions in us. Way to go Steve.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
Posts: 170 From: Tucson, Arizona Registered: Jan 2009
posted 04-25-2009 10:58 PM
Were there any national media outlets there covering this outstanding achievement? If so, who, so I can be on the look out for any stories on the tube.
Congrats to all involved... Work of art, work of passion and dedication! BRAVO!!!
cspg Member
Posts: 6210 From: Geneva, Switzerland Registered: May 2006
posted 04-26-2009 12:25 AM
Here's another video where you see the rocket's ascent(!). Amazing!
AstronautBrian Member
Posts: 287 From: Louisiana Registered: Jan 2006
posted 04-26-2009 01:00 AM
That launch was awesome. However, I don't think I would want to be as close to it as some of those photographers were...
dwmzmm Member
Posts: 82 From: Katy, TX USA Registered: Dec 2006
posted 04-26-2009 07:41 AM
quote:Originally posted by JPSastro: Were there any national media outlets there covering this outstanding achievement?
I read elsewhere the Discovery Channel crew were there.
mercsim Member
Posts: 219 From: Phoenix, AZ Registered: Feb 2007
posted 04-26-2009 06:06 PM
Congrats to Steve and all!
For other cS'ers, if you haven't been to a High Power Rocket launch, GO! Its a lot of fun and you won't regret it.
David Carey Member
Posts: 782 From: Registered: Mar 2009
posted 04-27-2009 03:32 PM
So very cool! With build talent like that it's only a matter of time before we see another run with staged firing
Awesome work.
spaceman1953 Member
Posts: 953 From: South Bend, IN Registered: Apr 2002
Congrats to all involved with this project... this should have been on the weekend network nightly news! Congratulations and thanks for sharing the video!
posted 04-29-2009 02:11 AM
BRAVO!!!!! That was beautiful! A real labor of love.
A guilty pleasure to benefit from someone's hard work, and crazy monetary investment.
Terrific!
Saturn V Member
Posts: 176 From: Golden, Colorado, USA Registered: Nov 2006
posted 04-29-2009 09:48 AM
Congratulations!!! Nice pitch over after clearing the tower and a picture perfect landing of the S1-C!
I want one!
Perhaps Spacecraft Films will do a DVD on this Apollo mission, complete with 35mm launch footage and tracking cameras with commentary.
Great job!
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42982 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-29-2009 10:39 AM
Among the astronaut autographs on the model's CSM, was also the signature of one of our own, author (and cS member) David Hitt!
Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
posted 05-05-2009 10:26 PM
A whole week late, I thought I'd add an eyewitness account to the launch. (Baby learning this week how to crawl = frantic childproofing of house = taking a week to get to this.) I'm not sure how much it will add to just watching the video clips above, but there might be some interesting details.
On Saturday, April 25th my wife Susanna, our son Benjamin, and I drove the 2.5 hours from the western suburbs of DC, around the Beltway, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and into Maryland's Eastern Shore. I was worried about the visibility for the launch because it was quite muggy out - on a clear day one can see the Washington Monument miles up the Potomac as you cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, but that morning there was just haze.
The launch was scheduled for "between 12:00 and 2:00", and we tried to time our arrival carefully - too early and we'd be out in the heat for too long with a nine-month-old, but too late and we'd find a rapidly dissipating smoke trail. As it turned out, we got there ten minutes later than ideal - they were no longer allowing people to walk right up to the base of the rocket. It hadn't occurred to me that would be an option, so oh well. I was just relieved to see that the day had become clearer, and that after being sent back to a distance of 1,500 feet with everyone else, we had a fine view.
We spent the next hour listening to the occasional update being broadcast on an unused FM station, having a picnic lunch, and talking to some of our fellow spectators. I strolled over to talk to one of the launch team members, and instead fell into conversation with someone standing next to him. As we talked about our enthusiasm for the space program, I was happy to learn that he was not only a collectSPACE reader, but had also attended the November ASF event at KSC. In fact, he said "There was a guy there who had..." and then he proceeded to describe an item I'd brought. He'd been standing right next to me when I showed it to David Scott!
They sent up a small sounding rocket a few minutes before the launch, and confirmed that the wind was blowing slightly towards the crowd from the rocket. This meant (as the announcer warned over that FM station, coming out of dozens of car radio speakers) that they'd be launching this 36-foot, 1,600-pound rocket so that it would go directly over our heads before the parachutes deployed, so the wind would then carry it safely beyond us. Oh my. I did the tiniest bit of contingency planning of how to get my wife and baby under the nice solid GMC pickup parked next to us.
At this point I'll concentrate on the first YouTube video above, with the "WARNING Rocket Launch" sign showing. (If you are ever searching for it on YouTube.com, it was posted by "calendar16.") First, I like how two seconds before launch you see some cars about to pass by a few hundred yards in the background. If the drivers hadn't known about this event, I must admit I'd like to have heard their reactions to the launch. I'm guessing something along the lines of "Sacred poop!"
Now, in the quarter-mile-wide crowd of hundreds of people, dozens were filming it and there are a bunch of videos on YouTube. But upon later viewing, Susanna and I realized from the angle of this video (in my opinion the best one) that by coincidence the shooter must have been standing just about ten feet from us. Now, remember how the rocket reached apogee DIRECTLY OVER OUR HEADS, and for a few brief seconds had the potential to become a GMC-piercing giant javelin? Well, that aroused in me a mix of happiness that the liftoff had gone well, and slight I'm-gonna-need-new-tightie-whities concern. So that's my gleeful, maniacal laughter at 1:21 (you'll have to have the speakers turned way up, which could be a problem at 1:07) just before we saw the chutes come out. I sounded like a cross between a bloodthirsty pirate and a giddy schoolgirl. Most decidedly Wrong Stuff.
And that's my head at 3:44 that comes within a nanometer of completely blocking the excellent landing. I have no explanation for my hair, other than to say that I'd given my hat to Benjamin to play with.
Congratulations and thanks to those whose imagination, skill, and hard work made this wonderful day possible!
ilbasso Member
Posts: 1522 From: Greensboro, NC USA Registered: Feb 2006
posted 05-06-2009 08:45 PM
In case you don't follow the forum, unmannedspaceflight.com has been having an interesting discussion about the largest solar system object from which Steve Eves' Saturn V could achieve escape velocity! The consensus is that the rocket could escape from asteroid Juno, and Saturn's moon Mimas is about the largest moon in the Solar System from which this particular rocket could escape.
SpaceAholic Member
Posts: 4437 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-06-2009 08:15 AM
Steve Eves has made the decision to donate his Saturn V to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The permanent exhibit, which will be sponsored by Orion Propulsion CEO Tim Pickens will be erected early morning Thursday (9 July) in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration alongside the real thing, just in time for the Sixth Annual Apollo/Saturn Reunion to be held in the same facility Friday evening.
Should be a spectacular sight for those in attendance.
Mr Meek Member
Posts: 353 From: Chattanooga, TN Registered: Dec 2007
posted 07-06-2009 09:31 AM
Awesome!
Just one question, though. The USSRC already has a 1:10 scale Saturn V (displayed in the Davidson Center next to 1:10 scale models of the Ares I and V). Has there been any statement from the museum regarding their plans for this model?
Atlantis Member
Posts: 111 From: Cullman, AL Registered: Dec 2007
posted 07-06-2009 02:06 PM
I'm started to regret not going to the reunion this year. I've got a schedule conflict involving college orientation. Nevermind the fact that fact that UAH is just across the street.