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This rocket went unstable immediately upon lift-off. It was a disaster waiting to happen. But inside the rocket was the Simple Timer from Apogee Components. It detected that the rocket had reached its maximum altitude when it sensed it had turned horizontal to the ground. That triggered it to fire off the an ejection charge that would expel the parachute. This worked to save the rocket from destruction and causing any harm to spectators.
We expected it to work about 500 feet in the air, not 30 feet from the launch pad. So it completely caught us off guard. But we were thankful that it did work perfectly.