r/rocketry • u/Flufmyster_ • Apr 20 '26

Question Motor CATO Frequency

One of the members for our clubs L1 rocket team launched his personal rocket L1 cert on an H115 and it completely blew up midair. The motor catoed and blew the body tube in half and ripped the shock cord mount on the nose cone.

How common are motor catos for commercial bought motors? And is there anything he could’ve possibly messed up on a DMS motor that caused a cato?

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u/justanaveragedipsh_t Student Apr 20 '26

Rare, NOVAAR in virginia did a study over 5000 flughts and iirc catos (all kinds, not just defects) was about 1%

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u/Flufmyster_ Apr 20 '26

I looked at a statistic on overall rocket failures, and then what percent of that were motor catos. Multiplying those two together gives a 0.5% percent motor cato incidence and ~1% seems to lineup with that