Growing up, I always wanted to shoot rockets, and I just never did. I can’t complain, there were a lot of things I was able to do that most kids don’t get to. Rockets would have been great though. Then again, I did have that tendency to set things on fire…

Now, I’m all grown up, with kids of my own, and recently I realized that I should just go out and buy a rocket.

We started with water rockets, but they weren’t in great supply around here. I found some plans on NASA’s web site to build your own water rocket out of 2 liter bottles, if you are interested.

Anyway, we bought a $16 dollar kit from a large retailer, it was made by Estes, and included a pre-built rocket, a couple of engines, and a launch platform. There were some other things included, basically everything you need to launch the thing a couple of times.

Let me tell you, it was a little overcast, and a little windy. Sure, we spent more time chasing the rockets than actually launching them, but I don’t know if you could put a dollar value on that type of fun.

My oldest currently wants to be a Scientist when he grows up, I just don’t want to grow up. I want to try and get my guys interested in Science. I hope to give them enough real world examples so that when they are sitting in math class, they don’t have to think that they’ll never need to know this stuff.

Now I just need to find the formula that tells you how much thrust you need to launch a specific height, or maybe how many feet per second an object of a particular weight will fall.

Oh wait, the oldest one is 6, well it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?

Wait, there was almost something really interesting to write about.

I didn’t mention the day that we did this. It was memorial day.

The following Wednesday is the day that the Air Force Academy graduates, so in preparation, the Thunderbirds (the aerial stunt team of the Air Force) was practicing.

I was launching my rocket just North of the Air Force Academy, and those planes were flying pretty low.

OK, of course I was making sure that the multi-million dollar planes were no where near me when I was launching the rocket, but in this paranoid day and age, you never know what could have happened. Can we say SWAT team?

What would have been even worse, is that after we were finished with the rockets, we were going to meet some friends to target shoot. So I also had a couple of hi-powered rifles and several hundred rounds of ammo in the Jeep.

I can imagine the headlines now.

I thought it was really fitting though, making use of my freedoms on Memorial day. A belated thank you to all of our Men and Women in the Armed Forces, and the Men and Women who support them. Thanks guys!

Posted in Rocketry, Fun, Distractions 2 Comments »