As a kid, I had a great time building and firing off those popular Estes model rockets. The acme of my modeling experience was getting a Saturn V, two-stage rocket that looked just like the ones used for the Apollo moon shots. It was so proud of the mini-missile that stood about two feet tall. On Saturday in Maryland, the mother of all model rockets was launched, another Saturn V model, but this one stood 36 fee tall, weighed nearly a ton and soared eight-tenths of a mile into the sky. Cost of the mission: about $30,000. Click on the video below to see its launch. Obviously, they had no trouble keeping the electrodes connected to the rocket engine wires; and the rocket also did not get tangled in powerlines upon descent – the two banes of my young rocket launching career.
For those of us who remember NASA's moon shots of the 1960s and 70s, here's a blast from the past, kind of, as the Saturn V takes to the skies again. I especially like the fact that the rocket had most recently been the home to raccoons and other vermin.