[bomelia]

Another thing that is interesting is the chute at the bottom of the rocket. I gotta believe he was trying to land the thing on its side, but it landed straight up! Maybe that WAS the goal. Least damage possible orientation. Maybe the bottom chute was to stop the bottom from nutating (gyrating). There WERE two chutes at the top which would seem to create an imbalance. I would love to hear the theory behind this. It is so amazing that it landed like it did! BTW, most of my rocketeer friends were positive that the complicated chute and separation system would not work. Too many complicated interactions. They were wrong! As for the engine, it was a "one off" so test data was very limited (due to cost as I understand it).

Mike