LUNAR Launch Photos and Video

Pre-2001 2001 2002 2003 2004 SpaceshipOne 2005 2006

2005a 2005b 2005c 2005d 2005e

LUNAR Launches 2005a

This photo gallery contains pictures and video submitted by LUNAR members. The pictures were taken at different launches. We have identified the launch where possible, however, by the time the pictures get to this website, the photographers are often a little hazy as to exactly which launch they took the pictures. I can usually figure out the year the picture was taken so that seems to be the safest organization for this list. Clicking on a picture will display the full size one.

January 2005 Robertson Park

2005 started out a bit wet with our first launch at Snow Ranch being rained out. The second launch at Robertson park also almost didn't happen as the soccer fields where we launch were booked for a championship Soccer Tournament. We got moved to the other side of the Rodeo Grounds so we could stay away from the soccer games but we were surrounded by rocket eating trees and houses. Amazingly, not that many rockets got lost.

You can see the rocket eating trees in the background as 4 mid power rockets ready to fly, including two TARC flights.	James collects a rocket (well, the remains of a rocket) he lost at Snow Ranch last April.


The TARC (Team America Rocketry Challenge) teams were there in force, testing their designs. One team actually had a 63 second flight (the target is a duration of 60 seconds). Too bad it wasn't a certification flight. Hopefully, they can do it again.


One TARC launch.	Coming home on a good parachute.

Another TARC flight.	A good parachute.

This little rocket came off the pad and started doing loop-de-loops all over the place. You can see in the picture where it is already trying to loop while still on the launch rod.	This one, on the other hand, flew straight and true.


This rocket is an Art Applewhite Flying Saucer on steroids. Lee, is the engine supposed to stick out the top like that???	The Flying Saucer is in a drag race with this lander. Joe, is the engine supposed to be sticking out the bottom that far? Oh, it is just the first stage hanging out the bottom. The second stage is inside where it is supposed to be.

It looks like the lander is winning here as the Flying Saucer is still sitting on the pad. When the engine in the Saucer finally got going it readily passed the Lander.	It looks like the engine was a little tight in the lander. It is supposed to eject. If it doesn't eject, those ejection gases have to go somewhere. I have been told it will fly again.


What's this??? Looks like an outhouse on the launch pad.	Woo! Woo! It actually flies.	Looks like it landed a bit hard.

Febuary 2005 Snow Ranch

Our first launch of the year at Snow Ranch was great. After all of the strange weather reports, we ended up with a beautiful day. This was also the largest crowd we have ever had here. At one point we had 80 cars parked along the creek. In addition to all the regular sport flights, we had seven TARC teams out there that made a total of 24 R&D flights. Most were clustered "D" to single "D" flights, but one team tested out a single stage "F" as a backup design, and another tried a very ambitious "G" to "E" stage! We also flew seven L1 cert flights (including one under the new Jr. HPR program), all but one of which passed. Another thing we had going today was a lot of people taking lots of pictures which you will see below.

There were a lot of TARC teams there testing their designs. One of the designs hit 59.5 seconds duration (60 is perfect). Too bad it wasn't a certification flight.

And some more tarc flights. The mid power pads got really busy and were reloaded almost immediately.


Bill Orvis (me) managed to get some Apogee engines to get the Space Needle flying again. It had a separation and managed to keep its record of never having a successful flight.

Here is another shot of Aaron's PML Phobos on an H165

Following are some shots by David Flournoy. He took about 600 photos but happily has limited them to the ones shown here. He got some great shots by setting his digital camera to a multi-shot mode so he has multiple shots of the same rocket at various stages of the flight.


These three are unknown high-powered flights.


Now, this is a cool rocket. Looks like barbed wire or maybe a lightning bolt.


The Pinata rockets have a drag race.	OK, what is it??? It may look strange but it flies very cool.

Here is a TARC rocket caught at liftoff, stage separation, and just after stage separation.


Patriotic fire. These three high powered launchs give a good look at the fire from three of the common composite fuels.
Redline I think this is the Walkin' Zombie on its last flight.	White Lightning	Blue Thunder Lee's Maniac on a K1100

Three more high-power rockets.

Another TARC launch, again showing launch and stage separation.

The following are some rockets and pictures by Joe and Judy Heckenbach


First is Judy's Glass Slipper lifting off on a H123 and doing the single ended dual deployment thing.

Here is Lee's Maniac on a K1100	Joe's Jomama

These last five are of the final flight of Walkin' Zombie. Joe did a postmortem of Zombie and narrowed the failure to the drogue switch. The switch was a mini-phono plug as used in an ancient article in High Power Rocketry Magazine. Zombie was his first dual-deployment rocket, a CPR kit from PML. Beleive it or not the altimeter still works after being pulled out of the hole in the ground. But don't think it's safe to let you're children out of your sight just yet. The Walkin' Zombie will rise from the grave and roam the skies again! There will be a sequel! The Zombie will return!

The following two pictures were taken by Aaron


The first is a PML Phobos on an F40-4	The second is a LOC/Precision Starburst waiting to fly on two D12-3s

The next four pictures are by Ron Van Stone who was practicing with his new digital camera. He won't say how many shots it took to get these four but if he is like me, it was a lot.


The first is Ron's ScaleKits Falcon on a G75.

This next picture is Greg Wong's first attempt at a video rocket that went very wrong. He mounted a Security Man camera on his Triad three-stage rocket. It appears the engine hook snagged on the pad so it sat there for the entire first stage (a D12-0). The rocket finally left the pad on the second stage (C6-0) but the C6-0 was inadequate to get enough speed coming off the rod and it took off horizontally. The third stage fired and sent the rocket skidding on the ground. The camera recorded the entire flight and survived the crash. This still is taken right after the third stage fired. You can see the 2nd stage falling away and the people standing around the check-in table.

The video is available on the Clay brother's website at:

Quicktime: www.VideoRocketry.com/OFV/triad_snow_ranch_20050205.mov

Windows: www.VideoRocketry.com/OFV/triad_snow_ranch_20050205.wmv

The quicktime video is about 3.5 Mb.

All images on this page by William Orvis unless otherwise labeled. Previous Next

All content is the responsibility of LUNAR. If you have comments or suggestions regarding these web pages, please contact the