Rocket Flight Analysis

In Aerospace NU we regularly launch high powered model rockets. Prior to the launch of these rockets we simulate the flight path using a software called OpenRocket. Recently, as our rocket construction techniques have improved, we have noticed that the OpenRocket does not correctly simulate the flights, regularly having up to 20% errors in projected apogee - the maximum altitude attained by the rocket. In an effort to track down this error, I worked to calculated the coefficient of drag of a rocket using recovered data from the on board flight computers. In particular I chose a rocket flight with a large error in the simulated apogee - nearly 300 m or 17% of the observed apogee - which also had five data loggers on it (typical rockets have two). Below is a paper deriving and verifying the calculation method for the coefficient of drag as well as trying to attribute the error in coefficient of drag to the simulation error.