West End: Rocketeers may try second launch Friday

Two Forks aerospace engineers scuttled the launch of their second three-stage rocket from the western Olympic Peninsula on Saturday because of poor weather conditions.

Eric Meier, Space Transport Corp. vice president who along with company president Philip Storm successfully launched a three-stage rocket 47 miles two weeks ago, said they may try to launch again this Friday, weather permitting.

“But if not Friday, we are expected the weather to improve for launch within two weeks,”‘ Meier said Sunday.

Meier said they were working on an electronic camera, which would be their first payload launch. The camera would be used to take photos from space at 62.5 miles and relay them back to the Space Transport base.

Storm and Meier are striving to create an affordable and more timely commercial future in space, including the transport of payloads and up to three passengers in a “suborbital tourist vehicle.”

Launch of their first 10-foot-long, four-inch diameter rocket took place in a remote West End location near Wentworth Lake. The rocket soared at 3,340 mph and landed in the Pacific Ocean about 40 miles off the Olympic Coast.

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