Reported by Robert H. Brigham
All photos by Jeff Stai
Page 11
One of the most anticipated M flights of ROCstock 19 was the long-awaited return to near space of Nibbles the Astrocat, aided by his long suffering trainer and one-man ground crew, Kurt Gugisberg. Nibbles’ new wings, christened “Space Death”, was scratch built by Kurt and featured a forward-looking cockpit facing a rearward-looking video camera with a live downlink.  In this way Nibbles’ every reaction could be closely monitored by the ground crew.
As the hour of launch approached, it was decided that Nibbles would benefit from a co-pilot, so a screaming (rubber) chicken was strapped into the co-pilot’s seat.  Motors were loaded – a central M1315 for liftoff surrounded by pairs of H180’s and H128’s for cruise – and the striking black and yellow bird was set onto its gantry. With cameras running, “Space Death” left the earth for the high blue sky at high noon, Saturday.  The video downlink worked perfectly and showed a stoic Nibbles piloting the complex rocketcraft through successive motor burns to an apogee of 4,000’.
The drogue deployed smoothly, as did the main. With a confident smirk, The Astrocat placed “Space Death” gently down on the playa - upright!.  A roar went up from the crowd. On egress Nibbles was heard to comment that he was ready to try for the X-Prize (or was that the XXX-Prize?) No matter, with all of the money pouring in from his speaking engagements, Nibbles is ready to fund his own space program. Oh, and congratulations to the ground crew for a job well done.

Not to be outdone...

Troy Monroe Stacey flew "Nibblet and the Space Life", a rocket of Estes descent (as it were) with a payload section containing the virtual vertebrate (stuffed mouse) Nibblet (The Mouse That Soared). It flew to near space on Sunday morning on a C6. Ultimate altitude has not been ascertained, but it was listed as a "Good Flight".
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