FORKS — Many rockets were launched on the North Olympic Peninsula on Independence Day.
But only one went 10.5 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Officials from Forks-based Space Transport Corp. launched a two-stage test rocket Sunday — and recovered the camera taking pictures inside.
“It was an amazing flight,” said Eric Meier, vice president of Space Transport Corp.
“We had great wind for it.”
The rocket, which measured four inches in diameter, was launched about 1:30 p.m.
During the 10-minute unmanned flight, several high-altitude photographs were taken using a Canon 2-megapixel digital camera.
Apogee — or the highest point — of the flight, happened about 50 seconds after liftoff.
The peak speed of the rocket, nicknamed “Spartan” after the Forks High School mascot, was 2,450 mph or Mach 3.4, Meier said.
“The expected slight ablation (when material ‘melts away’ during high-speed flight through the atmosphere) was seen on the rocket’s red nose cone,” he said.
GPS used in recovery
Meier said the launch helped the scientists tweak their rocket recovery methods, which is done using a global positioning systems (GPS) unit.
The rocket was recovered Monday about two miles from the Forks launch site.
“We had a little crowd go out with us this morning to hunt for the thing,” Meier said Monday.
“We will improve the homing method for the recovery. It still required a little searching to find the rocket.”