Upon arrival on the new Rimstead launch site, we were first completely mesmerized by the beauty of the location and its surroundings:

Gentle hills in merry spring green

with uncountable pear trees in full blossom

and a panoramic view that’s just breathtaking:

We set up the launch pad and did some first adjustments and calibrations before sitting down for a delicious dinner prepared by our very own back office angel, Daphne Desna.

Looking out of the window we saw a beautiful sunset and spontaneously decided to do a couple of night launches because we were SO ♬ in the mood ♬ for it.

It turned out that our new launch pad that had been elaborately crafted by the one and only Boltonov is an absolute stunner ♬ after dark ♬. Particularly the strongback with its lights make it a rocket nerd’s dream.

Look at that, we can’t get enough of it:

That’s Starmam on the pad, our flight-proven OS 2 that you already know from aSpIrM-1. She’s the ♬ queen of the night ♬, isn’t she?

After taking tons of pictures and being completely ecstatic about the new prospects, we proceeded to the night launches.

We sent our good old petite, Elektra, up twice. She went up straight like a needle due to the solid new pad, and she performed beautifully. On the second launch, upper altitude winds had slightly picked up and blew Elektra away. We did not see her come down, but found her the next morning.

Being completely blown away by this start into our aSpIrM-2 launch fest, we continued on to our pre-launch party. It was a great night: We watched “Dark Star” by John Carpenter and laughed so much that our stomachs hurt like crazy.

Afterwards we went outside again and enjoyed some uplifting stargazing. Arcturus in an incredibly bright orange, Jupiter rising, Venus setting, the moon in between … What a day – and what an absolutely magical night!