Took the kids out launching model rockets today. Was a great time. Bunch of friendly people out doing their hobby. #estes #NAR #spaceflight

Today's activity with the grandspawn was about a 4-mile #BlevinsGap hike followed by lunch at Stovehouse, #Huntsville Museum of Art, feeding koi, then games and hummingbird watching back home. Late pizza. A first month of school alto sax solo demonstration (ok, scales and blurts). That's quite enough of a day for Omi. Resting with sangria and a sci-fi book. The boy today discovered a cache of several #Estes #rockets in my storage room and wants to take possession of them. Sure. Right after shows he has read a book about model rocketry and can make an accurate list of what he needs to put the rockets in the sky.

⬆️ #AdamClarkEstes at #Vox does a hatchet job on #Apple.

#Estes drops a bait on #LiquidGlass, then rants about #AppleIntelligence, then raves about #Google's #privacy-invading #AI efforts, then rants "There is a risk for Apple that if they are too slow or too deliberate, they could lose some of the folks that want to live on the bleeding edge,” and then offers "Google is the clear alternative" -- only to conclude "You cannot, however, escape Liquid Glass 🙄

@Vox @technology-Vox

One day my son and I will complete the Estes Saturn V and launch it.

I mean. I certainly hope so!

#estes #saturnv #modelrocketry #procrastination #bucketlist

🚀 SpaceX 10th Falcon Heavy Epic Synchronized Booster Landing in 4K UHD within GOES-U Mission Launch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxWnlE9BMhg

#NASA #SpaceX. #RocketScience

Having grown up doing #Estes model rocketry, this still blows my mind.

I feel like a kid again. I subscribed to the Estes (model rocketry) email list.

#Estes #Rocketry

I just got in the custom front panel for the model rocket launch controller that I designed from INUX3D who did the UV printing and CNC routing of the panel. I have the components installed and will finish up the wiring this week. This was a fun project to design with my son and then build.

#ModelRockets #estes

😘 La 🤗#gratitud es ☝️#uno de los 🥰#sentimientos más 🔥#poderosos que ☝️#puedes 🎙️#usar para 🏞#atraer la 💧#abundancia y 🌦#bienestar a 🫵#tú 🤸#vida, sin☝️#importar ☝️#quién 😜#seas o #dónde 😜#estés.👍
8️⃣ #SociedadCreativa 💖 #PETA.
🎙️https://todoesposible.blog/quieres-abundancia-a-tu-vida-usa-el-poder-de-la-gratitud/#:~:text=La%20gratitud%20es.

I am getting very close to finishing up this model rocket launch control front panel. I need to do a few double checks and cleanups before I send it out, but otherwise, I am very happy with the layout and looking forward to getting it back and assembled.

#ModelRocket #Estes

We had a setback with our model rocket launch controller as we had a bad momentary switch. Once it was debugged (great teaching moment with the little one) we purchased a new switch and were greeted with all LEDs working and bright glowing, nichrome wire.

#ModelRocket #Rocket #Estes

Moving from concept to reality. The model rocket launch controller is making progress. I was able to lay out and drill/file all the holes into the front panel. I will use this to do functionality checks before sending off to
@Inux3D to get a CNC/UV printed front panel.

#ModelRocket #Rocket #Estes

Keeping with the effort on designing a launch pad, here is the rocket launch controller. It is supposed to have a 60's Industrial feel to it with the analog, but some integrated LEDs.

#Rocket #ModelRocket #Estes

Time to get printing the new rocket launch pad. Need to go to the hardware store and get some parts such as bolts and wing nuts. Fun project to do with the family.

#Rocket #ModelRocket #Estes

The parade of unfinished #ModelRocketry projects continues...but I am really trying to get this one ready to fly two weeks from today. This is an upscale of an #Estes Torellian Invader, a kit from the 80s, made out of a Super Neon XL kit. I got the fins cut and sanded this morning and just glued the first one on. 10 fins in all.

My Torellian Invader is the only finished rocket I built as a kid that I still have today. :)

@mysteryharvest and don’t forget #mushroom ink from ink-caps, #Dryads, weird audio from an #estes #spiritbox session, and more. When we get weird, we get REALLY #weird!

It’s already up on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGVddWfXC4YGEXmZ70dFlKQ (and a year’s worth more we just made public!)

Tonight's Wed Night #UFO Watch Party (#WUFO) livestream is on! we're streaming at 8PM PST! https://wufo.watch for the link and more details if you need ‘em, or on YouTube directly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO0oLvoWWjs!

This evening we'll be sharing an eerie recording one of our Liminal Earth friends captured during an #Estes session, talking about some stories from the http://liminal.earth map, and doing a fun experiment that you can do at home. Bring a snack and pull up a comfy pillow!

Me, exact same rocket, 42 years apart. #Estes #SkyRaider #OldRocketsStillFly

Here's a thread of my recent projects, starting with the most recent and working backwards until I get tired of it. 😀 Most of these will be #rocketry related.

St. Louis Rocketry Association has a night launch around Halloween. This year I brought "Ghost Goblin," an #Estes Goblin with an #LED lit skull in place of a nose cone. Unfortunately, the wind carried it into the trees far out of reach of the Poking Stick. (Second photo by Carmelo Turdo, The Aero Experience Blog.)

Retrotechtacular: Junior Missile Men of the 1960s

Just like the imaginative kids depicted in "Junior Missile Men in Action," you'll have to employ a fair bit of your own imagination to figure out what was going on in the original film, which seems to have suffered a bit -- OK, a lot -- from multiple rounds of digitization and format conversion. [GarageManCave] tells us he found the film on a newsgroup back in the 1990s, but only recently uploaded it to YouTube. It's hard to watch, but worth it for anyone who spent hours building an Estes model rocket and had that gut-check moment when sliding it onto the guide rail and getting it ready for launch. Would it go? Would it survive the trip? Or would it end up hanging from a tree branch, or lost in the high grass that always seemed to be ready to eat model rockets, planes, Frisbees, or pretty much anything that was fun?

Model rocketry was most definitely good, clean fun, even with the rotten egg stink of the propellant and the risk of failure. To mitigate those risks, the West Covina Model Rocket Society, the group the film focuses on, was formed in the 1960s. The boys and girls pictured had the distinct advantage of living in an area where many of their parents were employed by the aerospace industry, and the influence of trained engineers shows -- weekly build sessions, well-organized range days, and even theodolites to track the rockets and calculate their altitude. They even test-fired rockets from miniature silos, and mimicked a Polaris missile launch by firing a model from a bucket of water. It was far more intensive and organized than the early rocketry exposure most of us got, and has the look and feel of a FIRST robotics group today.

Given the membership numbers the WCMRS boasted of in its heyday, and the fact that model rocketry was often the "gateway drug" into the hacking lifestyle, there's a good chance that someone in the Hackaday community got their start out in that park in West Covina, or perhaps was even in the film. If you're out there, let us know in the comments -- we'd love to hear a first-hand report on what the club was like, and how it helped you get started.

#retrotechtacular #california #estes #launch #modelrocket #rocketry #stem

A Promising Start for the Doritos Space Program

Rocketry is tricky stuff, but as long as you're not trying to get into space, the whole idea can basically be boiled down into a simple concept: if you put enough thrust behind it, anything can fly. At least, for awhile. It's this basic premise that allows what hobbyists sometimes refer to as "Odd-Rocs" fly; these unusual objects might not be ideal rockets, but put a big enough motor in there, and it'll get off the pad.

Recently, [concretedog] thought he'd try putting together his own oddball rocket, and set out to modify a Doritos STAX tube for powered flight. There's plenty of precedent for turning Pringles tubes into rockets, but of course, that's hardly surprising. After all, what's a rocket if not a strong and lightweight cylinder? But the rounded triangular shape of the STAX tube promised to be an interesting change of pace. Plus it looked cool, so there's that.

Turning the snack container into a rocket was actually pretty straightforward. To start with, [concretedog] sketched around the outside of the tube on a piece of paper, and then took a picture of that with his phone. That image was then brought into Inkscape, and turned into a vector file that he could fiddle around with in CAD.

Between the thin plywood cut on his laser and PETG loaded into his 3D printer, he was able to come up with a strong enough motor mount to take an Estes D12-5. He then created some fins to glue on the side, and a triangular nosecone. A simple recovery system was installed, and the whole thing was finished off with a Doritos-appropriate orange and black color scheme.

The unusual shape of the rocket meant simulating its flight characteristics on the computer wouldn't work without custom software, so [concretedog] had to use the old school method of checking stability by swinging it around in a circle on a string. After trimming it out so it would orient itself properly on the tether, he was fairly sure it would fly straight under power. Sure enough, the video below shows the nacho cheese flavored rocket streaking skyward with impressive speed and stability.

It's far from the most advanced model rocket we've seen recently, but we really appreciate the simplicity of this build. It's a great reminder that fun doesn't have to be high-tech, and that by following some basic construction principles, you can knock out a safe park flier rocket on a weekend.

#toyhacks #estes #inkscape #modelrocketry #pringlescan