SpaceRyde's First Balloon/Rocket Flight

Launching a satellite to space by firing a rocket from a balloon offers significant advantages over traditional rocket launch from the ground. With it, however, comes many technical challenges such as what path the balloon will take, how to stabilize and control the orientation of the rocket prior to launch, and how to safely land a fully loaded rocket, in case of an abort.
For the first time in the world, a Canadian company, SpaceRyde, conducted a balloon/rocket flight on June 9, 2019 and successfully demonstrated all of these key technical capabilities.
SpaceRyde is on its way to become the first Canadian company to launch satellites to space. Join the space revolution as we move full-steam ahead to develop the first balloon/rocket space launch vehicle, ever built in the world.

[@g.f.martianshipyards9328]

Nice!

[@Vatsyayana87]

Cool, but "rocket flight" is exactly what this should not have been called, technically true as it may be. This was a balloon test i guess?
I have always scuffed at the fact that nobody does this for small class rockets, it gets rid of so much of the work that needs to be done and erases a huge portion of the rocket equation, Keep it up you guys, this is awesome!
But dont play with us, light that bird! :P

[@farche2]

How big a portion of the rocket equation does this erase? What fraction of the launch energy of a chemical rocket is used simply to gain altitude, not speed?

[@Vatsyayana87]

@@farche2 Well that depends on the rocket and the height its brought to doesnt it?
I dont know how to break down the entire rocket equation, i assume you dont either since your asking.
But lets get a small idea of what i mean and see what it takes a falcon 9 take get to 10 km, using the last launch.
Out of its 39,000 gallons of lox and 25,000 gallons of RP1 it takes about 16,900g (160,000 lbs) of lox and 10,800g (72,000 lbs) of RP1, so about 232,000 pounds of fuel.
Now you can add a little gain by having engine bells designed for this altitude meaning they can have better efficiency, except the center one since it still needs to land at sea level.
But then you have to take away the equivalent of the 1,350kph that has been imparted thus far.
You have slightly less gravity and significantly less atmosphere to fight and so on.
So now we would use the rocket equation to figure out what it takes from here to achieve the same orbit and i assume its a decent portion of less fuel used and smaller tanks, therefore less weight to take, therefore even less fuel and so on until it hits the answer.
It might be time for me to learn the rocket equation lol

[@Vatsyayana87]

@@farche2 And to answer your second question, anything over 1G of acceleration is useful during flight, that 1G is completely waisted and is called gravity drag, so whatever energy used to beat 1G for that 150 seconds getting to 10km is a complete waist that would be saved by lifting it first, also fighting the densest part of the atmosphere.

[@Vatsyayana87]

@@farche2 But like i said, i dont know how to do it all lol, but im looking into it right now.

[@Vatsyayana87]

Ah good point, landing a loaded bird during an abort has got to be one of the biggest issues in this entire endeavor, that must be a tough one.
Good luck!