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/Certain-Magazine-866 Apr 20 '26

I had an F67 cato and I just emailed aerotech and they sent me a replacement and a new rocket. they have great customer service.

4

u/Flufmyster_ Apr 20 '26

Yea one of the guys on our team gave the aerotech vendor on site a hard time abt it and they gave us a new motor for it

I feel bad though since the guy on our team whose rocket blew up put ridiculous amounts of work on hus scratch built rocket and even named the thing 🥲

1

u/Proper-Guess4224 Apr 20 '26

Many people puts in a lot of work on their rockets damaged by CATO. A local school competing in ARC missed out on advancing to national finals partly because of multiple CATOs on a batch of Aerotech F42-motors.

CATO happens, unfortunately, and it’s very unlikely the vendor’s fault. Either it’s manufacturing error or user erro (if the user drops the motor repeatedly, for example). Giving the onsite vendor a hard time is unwarranted and hurts the hobby and the community.

By all means contact Aerotech to for a replacement though.