To Everyone,

AUSROC II-2 STATUS REPORT                           Monday, 15 August 1994

Last week the Ausroc II-2 team conducted an intensive 1 week full time
assembly of the Ausroc II-2 vehicle in Norbert's garage in Melbourne. 

Present were:   Norbert Liedinger
                Mark Blair
                Tzupei Chen
                Andrew Cheers                   
                John Coleman
                Phil Hinds
                Grant Waldram
                Richard Bromfield

The result of this effort is that the body is now completely assembled
(with the exception of the fin unit which will be added in Adelaide).
Norbert had constructed an elaborate holding and assembly jig to support
and align the rocket during its assembly. Norbert had also manufactured a
custom drilling ring which clamped around the body tube to make it round
(the extruded body tube was out of round by up to 3 mm). Even with this
ring, it was still necessary to heat the body tube to expand it to make it
mate with the tanks (a nice tight fit before bolting) The machined
alignment spigots on the body segments and the assembly jig allowed us to
get the body within 2mm of side bend over 5m. This corresponds to about a
0.024 degree bend from one end of the vehicle to the other.

The hatches were cut into the body and the backing plates were bolted on.
This vehicle has removable hatch backing plates which give us substantially
more access to each of the vehicle fairings.

The internal valve and actuator plumbing was completed and only several
small adaptors still need to be purchesed/machined. The valves/actuators
were tested and no leaks were found and all valves worked perfectly until
some teflon sealing tape lodged itself in the kero actuator solenoid valve
and blocked the flow. The solenoid valve was removed and cleaned and the
system was again tested and responded nominally.

The wiring loom was also installed and connectors attached for each of the
valve sensors and tank pressure sensors.

The Electronics payload will be installed next and tested while connected
to all of the vehicle sensors. 

Then the vehicle will be painted and transported to Building 5 in Adelaide
for a series of complete system tests including trials with Liquid Nitrogen
to ensure that there will not be any cryogenic problems on the launch day.

Regards,

Mark Blair