We’ve been worked on several small systems and test tool the last few months. Two are just about complete. The reel system is lowering a thirty pound weight at a nice easy pace and can be smoothly stopped and started. We’ll do a bit more shop testing then it will be off to the tall ravine bridge. There we can test the full 500 distance run.
The new airbeam shell and endcaps are finished. This Wednesday we’ll do the pressure tests. We need to reach 3.4 psi with the test airbeam. Once we manage that we can put what we’ve learned into the Ascender rib airbeam.
Another new little critical system is a heater unit. This heater will warm the rocket motor before launch at 100,000 feet. The crew got the prototype together and did a great job getting data out of it on a series of test runs.