Flight result: Perfect recovery; flew to 60,000 ft

Max velocity: ~Mach 3

Motor Configuration: Aerotech M2050 + M1685

Payload: Geiger Counter (unsuccessful), down-looking camera

My work: Booster motor hardware/some sustainer hardware/CAD

My friends Thomas Booska, Chase Lang, Krushna Varpe, Elijah Sohn, and I converged on one absurd idea: to fly a high-altitude amateur rocket in Alaska. 

My personal responsibilities on the project were primarily manufacturing and CAD organization, where I developed naming standards and kept on top of version control, while also manufacturing both booster motors.

The rocket was as simple as a 2-stage high-performance rocket gets, using bolted casings identical to the one I designed for my high school altitude record attempt, and a conical staging cone that used the nozzle expansion cone as a mating surface, which slid directly into the booster motor casing. The sustainer fins were double-wedge fins that were CNC machined in ASU's machine shop and were bonded directly onto the motor casing after being etched with NaOH (sodium hydroxide). The nosecone was effectively an aeroshell; bolted onto a machined coupler that slid into the forward end of the sustainer casing.

We designed and built two of these rockets, appropriately named 'Against Better Judgement' and 'Despite Common Sense',  ordered 4 M-Class rocket motors that were shipped up to Anchorage, and flew the rockets as checked baggage in custom-made crates up to Alaska. 

This rocket also flew with my modified Geiger counter, which I previously flew to 40kft. However, the counter was damaged in transport and did not succesfully record data.

We flew the rocket with the Alaska Northstars Rocketry Club at Lake Louise, Alaska, where it flew to 60kft at Mach 3.0, and we recovered it successfully with solely a radio beacon, after losing GPS, thanks to Chase's remarkable foxhunting abilities. There was no need to fly the second rocket, because of our great nominal flight on the first go.