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Incident occurred at a club launch hosted by Michigan Team 1 at its Clio, MI, range on 5 Dec 2015 at about 2:30 pm. Approximately 1-2 seconds after ignition while rocket was in flight, a sudden separation occurred of the motor section from drogue section, releasing the drogue parachute. The apparent shock of drogue deployment at speed also caused, apparently, the nosecone to separate from the main parachute section, deploying the main chute. Rocket descended safely to the ground from an altimeter-indicated apogee of 384 feet. Main ejection charge fired at the prescribed 300 feet, but main parachute was already deployed. Drogue ejection charge failed to fire due to one of its wires having been torn loose from its electrical terminal by the premature separation and drogue deployment. Aerotech RMS 29/40-120 motor casing was seized to the fixed part of an Aero Pack retainer, as was the motor's aft closure to the motor casing. At home later, with proper tools the motor was extracted from the rocket, revealing an approximately 2" long, 1/4" to 1/2" wide, hourglass-shaped hole burned out of the motor's aluminum casing upper half, along with 2 cracks radiating from it. One of the cracks split the threaded portion of the case's upper body, which apparently caused the forward closure to separate from the motor and lodge itself sideways further forward in the rocket's motor tube. Rocket's motor tube was scorched and blistered, but not perforated, and rocket should fly again. No injuries or other damages resulted from the mishap. AeroTech agreed to replace both the destroyed motor hardware as well as the RMS HP-G138-14A rocket motor reload kit.
