Horizon I - Stardance

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Devlog #1: Horizon I is Taking Shape

Alright, so a lot happened. I finally locked in the first real design for Horizon I, and honestly, it feels good to have something concrete after all the sketching and second-guessing.

The big win this week was getting a rough baseline on costs. I had to run a bunch of different configurations through OpenRocket, which took way longer than I expected. Simulation after simulation, tweaking this, adjusting that. But it paid off. The current design can hit 10km including launch site altitude, which was the target I had in my head from the start.

What’s nice is the payload capacity. I can fit a lot of stuff in there without cramming, and most of the critical systems are tucked into the nose cone anyway, so the main body has room to breathe.

What’s Next

The immediate priority is the flight controller. I need to design it, submit that design, and get it manufactured. While I waiting on funding for that, I can dig into the actual technical challenges:

Stage separation mechanics
Nose cone separation
Parachute deployment (specifically how it untangles itself, which is trickier than it sounds)

And then there’s the flight software. I’m thinking of calling it OpenLaunch. The philosophy is simple: if I’m building something, I’d rather build it for the majority than the minority. Open source, accessible, something others can actually use and build on.

That’s where things stand. More soon.