QUEETS — It was all over in a thunderous blast, a great ball of fire and an eerie hail of rocket debris — among it the cartwheeling nose cone of Rubicon 1, which sank in the Pacific Ocean.
Space Transport Corp.’s first test of its 23-foot Rubicon suborbital tourism vehicle barely got off the ground Sunday afternoon about two miles south of Queets.
The Space Transport designers said a rocket engine blew up at launch, the apparent result of improperly produced solid rocket propellant that they made.
The blast dislodged the engine and drove it with 50,000 pounds of force into a steel-plated launch trailer, pounding a dent about a foot deep.
The second engine sent the remaining rocket wreckage hurtling out of control into the ocean shallows, where the remaining engine propellant steamed under water for at least five minutes.
Stunned onlookers walked about the shoreline debris, finding pieces of Rubicon’s fins and the head of the astronaut mannequin that rode in the rocket body with 600 pounds of lead weight.
Brush fire doused
A brush fire at the launch site was quickly extinguished on the private, remote ocean bluff property owned by Forks plumber John Anderson, who with other volunteer family members and friends had helped Space Transport president Phillip Storm prepare for liftoff.
Company vice president Eric Meier waited on a crab boat about a mile offshore, where he was to retrieve the rocket had there been a successful launch and splashdown.
Regardless of the failed mission in the international race for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, Storm maintained a stoic can-do attitude while looking like he just lost his best friend.
“The famous line I like is, an amateur is surprised when something doesn’t work, but a professional isn’t surprised when it doesn’t work right,” said Storm, admitting that he had doubts about the engine before liftoff.
As professionals, Storm said, he and Meier will continue rocket development at Space Transport and send up a rebuilt Rubicon in as soon as a month.