Saturday, January 19, 2008

Rockets

For Christmas, Julien got a model rocket kit. Took us a little while to get it assembled and find a good day to launch, but today was the day. Barely a breath of wind, high of 45 but clear and sunny so it felt warmer. We went out and found a good spot at Rancho San Rafael, a local park:



After a pretty simple setup, the launch crew gave a short countdown and:



It was PERFECT. Straight up about 600 feet, veering a little into the wind at the top. Parachute deployed, and it spiraled back down to about 100 yards away from the launch site. After retrieval, we took a victory photo:



Fun stuff. We'll have to get some more engines so we can launch again someday...

3 comments:

Gail said...

Very exciting. I bet Mich had as much fun as Julien.

SnowLeopard said...

That is a pretty cool looking rocket! Only one launch though, huh? Can you order another engine to be shipped to you (I saw that they won't fly them 'cause they're flammable)? Was Julien hyperactive with excitement? Having kids can be so much fun. :)

MarcT. said...

I freakin' LOVE Estes rockets! We shot them off in middle school. Had some good launches a couple years ago at Black Rock, too. So fun! They used to have engines at Ben Franklin's, probably ToysRUs, etc.