Sunday, December 17, 2006

Has anyone seen our rocket?

We enjoyed shooting our rocket so much last weekend that we decided give it another go, this time with the biggest rocket engine that would fit in it. I was curious how high it would actually go.

Has anyone seen it? Because we never saw it come down.

Using that engine in the Alpha III rocket is supposed to lift it over 1000 feet. Yes, 1000 feet. But I thought we were being pretty smart by using an engine with a very long delay before it blows its parachute. That way, even it if went up 1000 feet, it would have lots of time to fall back down to a more reasonable height before popping its chute, and the wind wouldn't carry it a mile away before it hits the ground.

The problem is that you can't see this rocket from 1000 feet. All we saw was a trail of exhaust smoke that went straight up into nothingness. It may actually have achieved low earth orbit. I hope it didn't interfere with the shuttle's work on the International Space Station.

We gotta buy another rocket. Maybe this time we'll write our phone number on it in case someone finds it.

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