Telem Flight 1
First flight of Starseek's Telem rocket. 3D printed from PLA, this is our first rocket with a small dedicated avionics bay - a key part to reaching the goal of getting real-time telemetry to a groundstation from a rocket. For this flight we'll just use this bay to house a Mercury altimeter, still a commercial off-the-shelf altimeter and not capable of transmitting real-time telemetry to the GS, but an upgrade from the Nano used on the earlier Origin flights and will provide more detailed, more accurate telemetry. Telem is significantly heavier than Origin, more robust and uses a 6mm launch rail vs a 3mm one. Internally, Telem features segregated areas to house the parachute and shockcord - preventing entanglement upon deployment. Telem also has hot swappable motor mounts - enabling rapid re-use on the unlikely off-chance the rocket lands in one piece. Telem is designed to be launched with B class motors and above, requiring a minimum of 5N/s of impulse. We'll be launching with a B4-4 (5N/s) and will need a local wind speed below 17.9mph for a go on launch.
- Apogee
- 40.3 m
- Max acceleration
- 9.3 G
- Time to apogee
- 3.4 s
- Max speed
- 20.6 m/s
Footage
Flight data
Hover or drag across the charts to read values
Altitude
m
Velocity
m/s
Acceleration
G
Altitude
- Apogee
- 40.3 m
- Time to apogee
- 3.44 s
Velocity
- Max ascent
- 20.6 m/s
- At burnout
- 18.0 m/s
- At ejection
- -14.1 m/s
- Max descent
- 21.1 m/s
- Landing
- 6.2 m/s
Acceleration
- Max during burn
- 9.3 G
- Average during burn
- 3.0 G
- Max on ascent
- 9.3 G
- Max on descent
- 37.6 G
Timing
- Motor burnout
- 0.85 s
- Parachute ejection
- 4.96 s
Stability
- Launch rail tilt
- 13.0°
- Max tilt to burnout
- 39.1°
Rocket & motors
Starseek-Telem-1
- Height
- 457 mm
- Diameter
- 28 mm
- Weight
- 135 g
- Total impulse
- 5.0 N·s
- Target apogee
- 40 m
- Recovery
- Single-deploy Parachute
Motor configuration
- Klima B4-4KlimaClass B · 18 mm · 5 N·s
Simulation predictions
Before flight, the rocket was simulated across 6 weather scenarios.
- Target apogee
- 40 m
- Expected apogee
- 10–45 m
- Max wind — nominal
- 8 m/s
- Max wind — turbulence
- 8 m/s
Retrospective
Overall a huge success. Motor ejection charge was approx 2 seconds too slow as per expectations from the simulation, as a result of us using a slightly undersized B6 motor vs a C6. The result was parachute deployment too late on descent, with a high impact speed on landing. All expected, as per simulation and accepted ahead of the flight. The key areas we were testing all passed - we successfully designed, 3D printed, assembled and flew a rocket with an avionics bay, and with a weight 4x heavier than our previous Origin rocket. Other improvements include the slow-motion groundstation filming and longer launch rod.