The SystemsGo team, or the four of us that got up in time, went to Denny’s for a very quick breakfast this morning. At first we weren’t sure we would get served in time, but the staff and cook worked swiftly to accomodate our schedule and we were out the door and in our cars ready to roll.
At 0530 the group headed to the Tula gate for security and ID checks, and then on to ABC-1 as we enjoyed a phenominal mountain sunrise full of color. Today’s mission, accomplish all preparations for tomorrow’s launches. All personnel arrived at the site at 0648 where we quickly began preparations for launches and final FRR checks. We had until 1630 to accomplish as much of the setup as possible. And the pad crew rocked. We had both rails up, test and rockets loaded by that time.
Ginger Burow set up the electronics trailer and the fill and fire system. It was all ready for testing by 1130. George handled the end at the “bell”. Later he went through the testing phase of the electronics for both rails, again handling the end at the bell while Cate and I did testing of equipment and wires at the launch trailers. We only had one minor snag with a bad injection wire which we built a new one and corrected the issue.
After George, Cate and I completed the testing we built load cells for the schools so they would be ready for launches tomorrow. Cate really enjoyed this part. She works on the electronics and wiring on her rocket at Hamilton and finds it interesting.
Steve Burow set up the pad, constructed the rails and helped hook up the “gas” truck. Students from the teams helped erect the rails and roll out the cables before finishing work on their vehicles.
Rebekah Hyatt, Andrew Matthes and Kash Kneuper coordinated all the final checks for each of the rockets, while all the students worked through their final check of the Flight Readiness Reviews.
For the fifth year, now college student from Hamilton, Kash Kneuper, returned along with second year Hamilton high school student returnee, Cate Hooper to volunteer on range again.
Schools Participating this year are Alamo Heights, Union Grove, Anahuac/Hardin Jefferson,Fredericksburg and Brazoswood.
Anahuac/Hardin Jefferson and Union Grove were to slated to be our first two launches tomorrow morning, but both have been fightinog pressure leaks. This lead to them having to shift further down the launch sequence. And unfortunately, by the end of the day, Union Grove after failing their pressure tests multiple times, decided to abort their launch. They will be going to Cloudcroft for cooler temperatures abd some sight seeing.
Anahuac/Hardin Jefferson is still working on theirs. They have a leak in a connector between a valve and the injections system, similarly to what they had on last year’s rocket. Hopefully they will be able to come to a solution for it this year.
Due to Union Grove aborting and Anahuac not being complete yet, the schedule shifted and Alamo Heights and Brazoswood’s 2026 rockets were loaded on the rail this evening and will be tomorrow’s first and second launches respectively.
Heat was a big factor on the range today. Our vehicle registered 116 and one of the WSMR guys pointed a temp reader at the ground and it read 140 degrees. This explains how no amount of water seemed to quench the dry in your throat. By the end of the day, we were all beat and ready for AC, food and cold beverages.
After the rockets were loaded on the rails we all went up top and Rebekah awarded R L Turner student, Anish Vishwamitra, a volunteer on the range this year, the Brett Williams Scholarsip for $3000. I believe the young man was quite surprised and pleased.
Our crew stuck to our tight schedule today and our caravan of vehicles plus WSMR personnel vehicles left the test site by 1700 headed in for the evening. Food and showers were top priorities upon returning to the hotels. They all headed to ApplebeeChili’s for dinner at 0645ish and were there until almost 8:00.
Steve and I were both very tired. He went to town to get gas, ice and some parts for out on the pad. I showered and started working on this article. I had a blaring head ache and wasn’t up to walking to Chili’s so George brought food back for me. Steve went to Poppeye’s and got him some food.
All in all it was a great day on the range today, and everything went quite well for SystemsGo. Setup was accomplished in a very timely manner and although it was not the original two rockets, there were still two loaded on the rails ready for tomorrow’s launches.
Launch order for this weekend’s launches has become fluid since several were not ready. At this point it will be whomever is ready next.
Friday’s and Saturday’s schedule is listed below:
- Friday, June 12th
- 1st Launch Day Two Rockets
- 0500 Depart from Hotel
- 0530 arrival at Tula Gate for Security checks/Proceed to ABC-1
- 0600 SystemsGo Set ups at ABC-1/FRRs.
- 0800 Rocket T #1 – Alamo Heights
- 0900 Load Rocket #3 onto launch rail
- 1000 Rocket T #2 – Brazoswood 2026
- 1100 Rocket T #3 – ??????
- 1500 Load rockets #4 and #5 on rails ( and Brazoswood)
- 1600 Complete All
SystemsGo now has two launch rails and both will be in operation tomorrow. A rocket will be loaded onto each rail and then tested in sequence with only time out for safety. The launch team will be required to evacuate during each launch; and then return to swap out gas and electrical connections between the rails.
Launches are to commence at 0800 Saturday morning. All SystemsGo personnel and schools will be headed out to the range at 0500.
After these three launches, WSMR personnel will attempt to locate and retrieve the rockets for the students while the next two rockets are loaded onto the rails, ready for Saturday’s launch schedule. Mission complete will be at 1600 tomorrow and all personnel must leave the range.
Realistically, this is a very tight launch sequence with little to no room for errors. As we know, errors can and do occasionally happen and can cause severe delays in the launch schedule and hinder time availability.
Best of luck to all schools so that they may have a successful launch tomorrow.
Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide information each day as to how the schedule and other event details went for that day and how launches transpired. Pictures are not allowed on the range, so very few will be available. If anything is available I will post it for your viewing pleasure. Tomorrow should wrap up our launches for t his year.
If we are lucky and things go perfect and we leave the range early their may be dune sledding in tomorrow evening’s future. And Sunday we will all be heading home.
www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.
#Rockets2026 #SystemsGo #RideTheSky #Texasrockettrail #WSMRRocketLaunch2026 #EyesOnTheSky #EyesToTheSkies #ItIsRocketScience
On the Wings of Angels 