What's going on here? Click to enlarge

It happened way back in 1969.  Jamie Clay, of San Rafael, California, had a birthday, and on this birthday, he got a Hasbro GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule.  It was only released for that one year, but Jamie envisioned his capsule, with GI Joe at the controls, orbiting the earth.  According to Jamie, it was one his parent's greatest babysitters.  But as luck would have it, his Mercury capsule never made it into orbit.

Fast forward, thirty years later. Toys-R-Us and Hasbro have re-issued the GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule, and Jamie was better prepared to follow up on his earlier childhood dreams.  He wanted to do a special Level 3 project, and the GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule seemed like a viable subject.  The capsule's base was 9.25" in diameter and all it took was a locating a body tube of that size and the projected began to gel.

Ready for launch! Click to enlarge

Now Jamey wasn't to be satisfied with just strapping Joe in, fastening the capsule to the rocket and letting it rip.  There was a method to his madness.  His goal?  Loft the GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule into the sky, but this rocket would have an escape tower that Jamie wanted to detach from the capsule, let the capsule freefall to a lower altitude and then deploy its parachute, all while the escape tower and booster are also going through their recovery processes. And, the entire flight was to be recorded by three different on-board video systems.

According to Jamie's L3 documentation on his "Mercury Joe" website, located at http://www.mercuryjoe.com/, the big challenge of this project was to perfect a system that allowed the capsule to free-fall to a safe altitude before deploying its parachutes. In Jamie's words, "this is no more than a dual deployment flight, but the added complication of extracting the tower so the capsule can free-fall is anything but simple."

Ah, but Jamie is a picture of persistence.

Jamie's flight plan called for the capsule and escape tower to separate from the booster at apogee.  This separation also released the hold-down straps that attach the escape tower to the capsule.  The capsule has a deployment bag attached its the heat shield that pulls out the drogue chute for the booster's recovery system.  

When the capsule and escape tower separate from the booster, it activates an timer-based ejection charge inside the escape tower.  This allows the capsule and escape tower to drift away from the booster before the escape tower ejection charge fires.  Once fired and the escape tower's parachute inflated, the weight of the capsule causes it to fall free from the escape tower's base.

The capsule then begins its descent to around 1000 feet, where an altimeter deploys a drogue chute, and that subsequently deploys the capsule's main chute.  If all goes according to plan, the escape tower records the capsule's free-fall and recovery as well as the booster's recovery.

Jamie's website has an excellent collection of flight videos other than the one featured here.  With so many different video sources from his flights, there are lots to choose from.  Visit his site and take a look around — you'll enjoy the scenery.

Various flight sequence photos. Click to enlarge

Specifications:

• Diameter - 9.25"
• Length - 10' 4 3/4"
• Nose cone - Toys-R-Us Hasbro Re-issued GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule
• Fins, 2-sets - 4
• Dry weight - 37 pounds
• CP - 92.5"
• CG - 83"

Recovery:

• 48" Spherachute in the escape tower
• 60" Spherachute in the Mercury capsule with a 20" drogue chute
• 12' SpectraChute in the booster with a 20" drogue chute

Ejection Charges:

• 1 gram BP main decoupling charge in a 1/2" x 19" PVC pipe. This charge holds two Davey Fire e-matches (2001 A/N 28b), one from the main flight computer and one from the back-up flight computer.
• 1 gram BP escape tower recovery charge with Davey Fire ematch (2001 A/N 28b), fired from the 2 second Perfect flight timer.
• 1 gram BP capsule recovery charge with Davey Fire e-match (2001 A/N 28b), fired from the Capsule flight computer (G-Wiz MC).

Flight Computers:

• Booster - G-Wiz LC used as the primary flight computer for the booster and will fire the decoupling charge at apogee.
• Capsule - G-Wiz MC used as a back-up to the primary flight computer for the decoupling charge but will also deploy the Capsule's parachute using its low altitude deployment channel.
• Tower - Perfect Flite timer with a 2 second delay is used to deploy the tower parachute. 

Video Electronics:

• 2.4 GHz transmitter and camera in the escape tower looking down supplying a live downlink feed of the flight to the ground crew. 
• Aiptek DVII system records the view within the capsule.
• Aiptek DV4500 records the classic view looking down from the booster.

Motor Capacity:

• Single central 75mm x 31.25" motor mount with steel retaining clamps.
• Four 38mm x 13" motor mounts with steel retaining clamps.
• Three 13mm "retro pack" motor mounts. Note these are for optional use.