Iain Finer

Propulsion Engineer building rockets for a living. @ISUnet & @UCNZ alum. Runner and traveler. Views are my own. Living the dream.

[Iain Finer @fineri]

I can't get the blades to track on this thing, they constantly go out big time as I increase pitch. The vibration is so bad the FC failsafe triggers. So many potential culprits, will switch to a flybarless head, was hoping to do this anyway, just not now.

[Mustard @MustardVideos]

Two new videos today - watch them both on Nebula! @WatchNebula

[Stan 🇪🇺 @stan_maximin]

We showed you the 2nd test because it was sunny, but it wouldn’t be nice not the show the first one ;)

And yes : we improved the extinction between the 2 tests 🙃

Same engine tested btw

[Stan 🇪🇺 @stan_maximin]

I almost broke my hand while celebrating this 🤕

Because on the 13th of May, after 6 months of relentlessly trying to find the right process to light up the engine with its turbopump, we finally did it right.

Not once, but multiple times. With reproducible results.
1/2

[Dave Limp @davill]

Some LC-36 updates. Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility we can share a bit of good news. The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced. The booster “Never Tell Me The Odds” and the three GS-2s that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.

I’ve seen some speculation that we might move directly to the 9x4 configuration, but we won’t do that. Rate manufacturing of 7x2 is going well, and we’re going to continue that at pace as planned and store the stages for use. In addition, we had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical conop, and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector.

We will fly again before the end of this year. Gradatim Ferociter.

[Iain Finer @fineri]

The esc dd not like being tie wrapped tight, so I print a clamp and put some foam behind the esc. As well as recalibrating the end points, this has seemed to fix it. Castle Creations are relatively high end esc's so strange to have this happen. Switch to MGM for the next heli.

[Iain Finer @fineri]

Spent the evening double checking all the flight computer settings before flight, only to have the ESC decide not to arm any more 😭

[Iain Finer @fineri]

Spent the evening double checking all the flight computer settings before flight, only to have the ESC decide not to arm any more 😭

[Hill Helicopters @HillHelicopters]

The story of how Jason Hill's ambition is delivering what the industry has long promised but never achieved: a true General Aviation 2.0.

👉 https://t.co/ahtdqIq48e

[Latitude @Latitude_eu]

Home-built #Turbopump now integrated into the fully equipped flight #Navier #RocketEngine. Our teams worked side by side through trials, tweaks, and hard-won learnings to achieve a functional unit 🔥 Another major step toward flight testing. Now it’s time to light it up 🔜

[Iain Finer @fineri]

@kegrocket Epic! Not able to have this thread machined when the part was produced?

[Iain Finer @fineri]

Finished the upgrade from the mk3s+ to the mk4s. Setup and calibration is so easy and effortless, some great thought has been put into this build across all avenues.
Worth the $$.

[Raúl Torres🇪🇸 @RaulTorresPLD]

MIURA1 barrel (0,7m dia) (left), MIURA5 barrel (2m dia) (center), and MIURA [?] (>3m dia)for future reusable vehicle, including landing legs, control surfaces and propulsive landing. This is going to be MASSIVE. #VamosMIURA

[Max Evans @_MaxQ_]

Talk about an upgrade!

Left: Flight 11 stack of Booster 15-2 and Ship 38
Right: Flight 12 stack of Booster 19 and Ship 39

📸 - @NASASpaceflight

Upcoming WDR coverage: https://t.co/mPHhk155F8

[Iain Finer @fineri]

Book 6 of 2026 complete. I really enjoyed this. Although it wasn’t from my era at school, it reminded me of a lot of people from my school classes and of life in NZ in general. I’d say it’s even more enjoyable if you’ve lived in, or are from, NZ.

[Iain Finer @fineri]

Book 5 of 2026 complete. Quite the eye opener, given the state of the world at the moment. I hope things get better for my daughters sake.

[PLD Space @PLD_Space]

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗜𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝟱’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲!

These are the Flight 1 Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tanks for our orbital launch vehicle -first and second stages- now taking shape as part of the integrated flight structures.

Seen here in their final flight-ready configuration, this flight hardware marks a key milestone ahead of MIURA 5’s first test flight, planned for 2026 from Kourou.

MIURA 5 is moving from development to the launch pad really fast 🚀

[Iain Finer @fineri]

New upgrade in-house! Should be good for a few years yet!

[afec7032 🇷🇺 @robert_savitsky]

Roscosmos uploaded a lot of high quality photos from Soyuz-5 / Sunkar rollout & launch (thread):

1/15

[Iain Finer @fineri]

This was suppose to be a short, but there is too much to tell!
Walkaround of my arducopter setup. https://t.co/88ZCx7stJN

[Iain Finer @fineri]

So ARCA do not appear to be dead... https://t.co/UXS20n6bje

[Andrew Parsonson @AndrewParsonson]

Sidereus Space Dynamics, which was Italy's only launch startup, has officially closed its doors. The company was developing a small single-stage-to-orbit rocket called EOS for cubesats. Included is a short statement I got from co-founder Luca Principi about the closure.