Pictures from CSXT's Space Shot 2002

CSXT Space Shot 2002 (June attempt), Black Rock Desert NV

by Ian Kluft

These are pictures from my visit to the Civilian Space Exploration Team (CSXT)'s "Space Shot 2002", an attempt to launch the first amateur rocket to an altitude considered space.

I was there from Tuesday, June 25 to Friday, June 28, 2002. I only have pictures of Tuesday and Wednesday but they're pretty representative of the event. Every day during the week, there was an FAA-approved launch window in the morning and afternoon/evening. Weather, technical problems and some impossible conditions on the FAA launch permit caused all the launch windows to expire without the rocket being launched. CSXT came back in September and did launch it then.

(1536x1024 2040K) (500x333 27K)	The CSXT launch site as we approach it for the first time on Tuesday. This is viewed driving east from the new "10-mile entrance" to the playa which was built in 2000.
(1536x1024 2111K) (500x333 35K)	Preparations are ongoing at the central work area of the CSXT launch site. The law enforcement officer in the center of the photo is "Ranger Randy" from BLM's Winnemucca field office. BLM Winnemucca is the the managing agency for the Black Rock Desert. Since the FAA launch permit required us to clear the downrange areas of the playa before launch, it's obvious why BLM assigned law enforcement to the event. (The BLM staff we met were all friendly and helpful.)
(1536x1024 2108K) (500x333 37K)	John "JP" Powell W6JPA and Bryan Klofas KF6ZEO are re-stringing antenna cables back to the repaired high-gain tracking antenna array that had been knocked down in Monday's hurricane-force wind storm. (Bryan, Ralf and I didn't arrive until late Monday night so we missed that storm. But there were plenty of cleanup and repairs to help with on Tuesday.)
(1536x1024 2087K) (500x333 42K)	A view from the flight line to the launch pad about 1/4 mile away. The people with the pickup and ATV on the right are CSXT crews putting up cones where a "road" on the playa crosses the data cables. Lesson learned from this: before picking a multiple-day event site, figure out if major playa paths cross your equipment. This turned out to be the road from the 2-mile entrance to Trego. But that went initially unnoticed because everyone entered from 10-mile.
(1536x1024 2069K) (500x333 36K)	Bryan KF6ZEO stands by the repaired high-gain tracking antenna array. (These are the same antennas JPA had on the airport ramp at the Oklahoma launch 3 months earlier.)
(1536x1024 1631K) (500x333 25K)	Inside the JPA mission control van (which was only performing tracking at CSXT's event) the antenna repairs are being checked out.
(1536x1024 2013K) (500x333 34K)	A beehive of activity continues at CSXT's central work area. (Much of the work Tuesday was related to Monday's wind storm.) The CSXT SPace Shot 2002 crew all have similar shirts on. The man in the green shirt and the woman in the gray tanktop are video producers from Pinnacle Video Group in San Antonio TX, an event sponsor who are making a professional video of CSXT's launch efforts. Once CSXT succeeds, they should have quite a show to put on.
(1536x1024 1840K) (500x333 27K)	CSXT crews work on the electronics in the rocket's nose cone.
(1536x1024 2158K) (500x333 36K)	Some adjustments are performed at the JPA high-gain antennas. The people at the antennas (left to right) are Bryan Klofas KF6ZEO, Uriah Barnett KF6FQA, and John "JP" Powell W6JPA.
(1536x1024 1856K) (500x333 30K)	Work continues Tuesday afternoon at the CSXT central work area. Some of the video crews can be seen in the foreground talking with BLM rangers, fine tuning what each plans to do during that afternoon's launch window.
(1536x1024 1453K) (500x333 19K)	Aubrey gets a driving lesson on the playa while we search for one of the winds aloft instrument packages that CSXT wasn't able to find.
(1536x1024 2323K) (500x333 39K)	We found it. Uriah KF6FQA provides some scale for the picture of the instrument package we were looking for. It was several miles from where the in-flight telemetry said to look for it. So the wind dragged it a long way along the ground after touchdown. No wonder why CSXT didn't find it earlier - it certainly wasn't easy. We're familiar with Black Rock and even we needed some luck (and really good binoculars) to get it. This find definitely helped establish our credibility as helpers at CSXT's event.
(1536x1024 2396K) (500x333 56K)	We took an extra shot of the winds-aloft instrument package for CSXT. Just like when recovering our own equipment, we took pictures before we touched it in case there were questions later about the conditions under which we found it.
(1536x1024 1406K) (500x333 21K)	Bryan gets a driving lesson on the way back to the launch site from recovering the CSXT winds-aloft instruments.
(1536x1024 1984K) (500x333 31K)	Uriah drives ahead of us enroute back to the launch site.
(1536x1024 2036K) (500x333 35K)	Later Tuesday afternoon, the weather starts to take a turn for the worse. Looking south from the camp, we can see the weather that's coming includes virga (rain that evaporates before hitting the ground) and blowing sand. (It was coming fast enough that I just snapped the picture where I was - I didn't know if I had time to run to get the porta-potties out of the frame.) Though the effects of the wind haven't arrived at the launch site yet, everyone who was there Monday remembers it looked just like this before the hurricane force winds arrived.
(1536x1024 2024K) (500x333 32K)	With Monday's storm lessons in mind, the Tuesday afternoon launch window is scrubbed before it opens. Everything is stowed away to brace for another storm. (This awning was taken down quickly Tuesday. But the previous day, it was still up and it took efforts of everyone present to hold the frame down during the storm's full fury while the cover was removed. By that point sand was blowing so hard that it stung.)
(1536x1024 2077K) (500x333 31K)	Everything is being stowed and tied down as a sand storm approaches. Note that the flags are blowing quite a bit already.
(1536x1024 1806K) (500x333 17K)	The first "gust front" on Tuesday containing visible blowing sand (an indication that the wind speed inside is greater than 15mph) is about to hit the launch site. But this time everyone was ready for it.
(1536x1024 2007K) (500x333 33K)	Wow! This place emptied fast. We (the JPA crew) stayed behind while the CSXT crews went to Gerlach. They used a meeting room at Bruno's restaurant/casino to plan the next day's activities indoors. Tuesday's winds turned out to be nothing compared to Monday. It was all over after 30 minutes.
(1536x1024 2137K) (500x333 33K)	JP points out something to the video crew (on their ATV.)
(1536x1024 2107K) (500x333 27K)	This is Randy Repcheck from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation in Washington DC. (They license all commercial US space launches and are trying to figure out how to handle amateur launches.) OK, everyone, no jokes about government agents or stuff like that... He and a co-worker travelled all the way to Black Rock, arriving Tuesday after the storm had mostly blown over. It was actually a good thing that FAA headquarters folks got outside of "the beltway" and observed the conditions they were setting for space launch permits. During the week, they got to see in person how some launch windows were missed in good weather because of unnecessarily difficult conditions on the permit. For example, we couldn't launch without approval from three FAA air traffic control centers - none of whom answered their phones on Friday. When Friday's launch was scrubbed, the FAA guys got video cameras all over their faces while being asked why the conditions had to be set unnecessarily difficult, impossible in this case. Though it was awkward for everyone in June, things were different in September as everyone learned from this.
(1536x1024 2247K) (500x333 32K)	Randy and Paul from the FAA look around the launch site Tuesday while the CSXT crews are in Gerlach after the storm.
(1536x1024 1967K) (500x333 19K)	This circular pattern in the clouds on Tuesday appears to be the center of rotation of the low pressure trough that caused the afternoon's wind storm. The cloud kind of looked like a snail so that's what we nicknamed it as we watched it go by. Note that there is precipitation falling from it that's evaportating before getting to the ground (virga).
(1536x1024 1877K) (500x333 28K)	After the wind mostly died down, we in the JPA crew came out of our shelters (tents, RVs, van, cars) and talked.
(1536x1024 2048K) (500x333 22K)	Sunset colors the thinning clouds over Black Rock. An official of the Space Frontier Foundation arrived at Black Rock and asked us about the day's happennings. We also told him where the CSXT people could be found in Gerlach.
(1536x1024 2075K) (500x333 29K)	Wednesday around mid-day, the airplane whom we needed for clearing the playa arrives. If there were people in the downrange area, he could find them and alert us.
(1536x1024 1908K) (500x333 28K)	The beehive of activity is buzzing again Wednesday. The big red balloon was hoisted tethered each day as a wind direction indicator. Otherwise it was kept (inflated) inside the truck.
(1536x1024 1794K) (500x333 17K)	Dave Brock N6DCB (JPA VP) talks with the Pinnacle Video crew.
(1536x1024 1984K) (500x333 33K)	At the central work area, they're preparing to take the rocket to the pad.
(1536x1024 1936K) (500x333 26K)	The nose and the forward part of the rocket body are carried to the pad 1/4 mile away.
(1536x1024 1814K) (500x333 19K)	The video crews got lots of footage of the rocket enroute to the pad.
(1536x1024 2210K) (500x333 34K)	Bryan aims the JPA tracking antenna to receive any test telemetry transmitted by the rocket while it's on the pad.
(1536x1024 1988K) (500x333 27K)	The group prepares to insert the rocket into the launch rails.
(1536x1024 2068K) (500x333 44K)	The forward section of the rocket is inserted into the launch rails.
(1536x1024 2060K) (500x333 39K)	The forward section is now on the rails, waiting to be mated to the aft section. (For anyone who watches Junkyard Wars on TLC, also aired in the UK as Scrapheap Challenge, Ky Michaelson who is speaking to everyone in the center of this photo was the judge for the episode where they built rockets for a season finale. On the far right, Bruce Lee was the expert for the Long Brothers team who won on that episode. Ky is the leader of CSXT.)
(1536x1024 2090K) (500x333 39K)	The flight line as viewed from the launch pad.
(1536x1024 1627K) (500x333 19K)	The plane departs after Wednesday's launch window was scrubbed.
(1536x1024 1920K) (500x333 16K)	The plane departs after Wednesday's launch window was scrubbed.

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