In the week after easter holidays the students have a semester break with no lectures or exercises. But there are more fun activities than relaxing at a beach or enjoying a hike through the mountains of Switzerland. Rocket science for example! The members of team HELVETIA and ASTREA took this opportunity to have the first and second “Dry Launch“.

What we call a Dry Launch is a first assembly of the rocket, going through all the necessary procedures until the countdown and ignition, just without ever fueling or igniting anything on the rocket. Its purpose is to prepare the team for the day of the actual launch. Written procedures shall become real actions, actions shall become well-trained and the well-trained in the end shall become muscle memory. This will make mental capacity and allow the team to focus on new and unexpected challenges on the launch day itself.

In order to accomplish this level of understanding in drill in our procedures, we have to start early and train a lot, which is why the team decided wholeheartedly to invest some of our free days into the first training of procedures. Due to some shipping delays and caution around certain parts, we did not mount the rocket onto the Launch Rail, but assembled it almost completely to then do a simulation of the transportation of the rocket to the Launch Rail, ending in the first run through the Launch operation procedures.

As with everything, the first time is always not perfect, as is the case here. A lot of procedural mistakes were found and the team is now in the process of eliminating those such that for the future of the launch campaign, HELVETIA can rely on our improved procedures.

We are all looking forward to the final month in Switzerland for this project and getting the system finally ready for the big launch at the Spaceport America Cup.