What was the first rocket you ever launched?

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Either an Astron Streak or Sprite - in the last year or so of the Imperial units motors. I'm guessing this was 1967 or 1968 - the 1967 catalog is the first one I remember and I would've been 12 at the time.

I also had an Alpha which I did in white and fluorescent orange Aero Gloss. All these (and most, but not all, of the rockets from my first rocket period) are gone. I do still have a Sky Blazer (the original shorty-motor one) that makes me cringe to look at now and the lower part of my Constellation. The payload section drifted away after the shock cord failed shortly after I got back into rockets coming up on six years ago now.
 
Mine was similar to the Estes Liberty but the name escapes me at the moment...kinda like the rocket did.

We lost it the first day flying in the proverbial tall grass that AMA Free Flight modelers crave. I learned that model rocketry was different from flying model airplanes that day.
 
Gary Byrum said:
Damn! Now I gotta post that flippin photo. Ignore the misspelling on the shack. We were kids still learning how to spell. The concrete deflector is in the center of the boxed off area.

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Gary,

Is that a Double Trouble between the Sprite and the Big Bertha? If so, I remember when you built that. I don't see any of my rockets on display, so I must not have been there for that launch.
 
Mine was an Estes Fat Boy. Launched it at what was my middle school at the time. Had some good flights on it. Managed to land it on the roof of the senior center a time or two as well.

Matt
 
LW Bercini said:
Gary,

Is that a Double Trouble between the Sprite and the Big Bertha? If so, I remember when you built that. I don't see any of my rockets on display, so I must not have been there for that launch.
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Yes, Double Trouble. Apparently you weren't there or they would have been in the photo. Prolly one of out slower weekends.
 
June 1970, Big Bertha. Landed 30' up in a grove of poplars. Sister BF got it for me.
Landed in trees every launch, finally turned on it's side and disappeared into the horizon of 20 to 30 dense pine trees.
On my 8th BB now. About to get another one I think.
 
My first rocket launch was in the early 1960's. It was an MPC Apollo Moongo that I bought at a Meijer's store. My mother went with me. Now over 50 years later I'm still launching them.

Rocketron
 
Estes Challenger I. The launch pad was a 12 volt battery placed on it's side with a orange plastic mounting plate that held the launch rod and deflector plate. I was about 12. I was instantly addicted!
 
Big Bertha and Alpha when I was 8 years old, Day after Christmas actually, in 1971.


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.
 
I think my first was the Alpha, but my favorite rocket was the SR-71 Blackbird.
 
Well I guess technically it was my dad's rocket, but he let me push the button for the first time ever. It was an Estes Mean Machine and we launched it at the local high-school. I remember looking up at the rocket, which stood taller than me.
 
Estes Alpha III. I got it for my 11th or 12th birthday, so it would have been either 1988 or 89. Still have it, though I really don't fly it anymore.
 
My first modroc was a Centuri Javelin via mail order in the summer of 1968, followed closely by a Centuri Payloader II. I was Centuri only for a year or so, then the LHS started carrying some Estes kits and Centuri kits and I built and flew both after that.
 
1st ever was a Mosquito.

This might have been 1980ish??? Do remember only having enough money to buy the rocket and one package of motors. Built kit and painted it with a brush and model car paints.

made a launch rod out of something. Maybe a coat hanger? Went to local park, jabbed rod into ground, installed motor, only had enough wire to get back a few feet. got down on ground like a sniper, touched the wire to a 9v, whoosh, rocket disappeared.
 
RodRocket said:
1st ever was a Mosquito.

This might have been 1980ish??? Do remember only having enough money to buy the rocket and one package of motors. Built kit and painted it with a brush and model car paints.

made a launch rod out of something. Maybe a coat hanger? Went to local park, jabbed rod into ground, installed motor, only had enough wire to get back a few feet. got down on ground like a sniper, touched the wire to a 9v, whoosh, rocket disappeared.
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Yeah, always makes me wonder why I bought an Astron Streak. I just couldn't shake the C6-5 addiction. 1 good flight...history.
 
My first rocket was a Centuri Javelin. Was in a starter kit with the launcher and a couple of motors. Got it on Christmas Day, 1972. Built it that morning and we flew it in the afternoon. I think we flew it twice that day, and got it back for a couple more flights. That was soooo many rockets ago.
 
I was just reading in G. Harry Stine's Handbook of Model Rocketry how everyone is supposed to remember his first launch. I sure don't. I remember one of the rockets I had as a kid, an Estes X-Ray, but I am pretty sure that wasn't the first. I flew that X-Ray a lot. I thought it was so cool in the catalog with its clear payload section, but once I built it I could never think of anything really cool to stick in the payload bay. Flew well though, and survived many a recovery. This would have been around 1972 or so.

Stine says you are also supposed to have adult supervision at every launch. Ha ha! The only adults we ever had around were the regional park rangers who would come out and chase us away.
 
Estes Alpha III, with the plastic fin can and Halloween colors. It was a starter set gift. Very quickly moved on to other, more complicated rockets, but launched the Alpha every time.
 
simonov said:
I was just reading in G. Harry Stine's Handbook of Model Rocketry how everyone is supposed to remember his first launch. I sure don't. I remember one of the rockets I had as a kid, an Estes X-Ray, but I am pretty sure that wasn't the first. I flew that X-Ray a lot. I thought it was so cool in the catalog with its clear payload section, but once I built it I could never think of anything really cool to stick in the payload bay. Flew well though, and survived many a recovery. This would have been around 1972 or so.

Stine says you are also supposed to have adult supervision at every launch. Ha ha! The only adults we ever had around were the regional park rangers who would come out and chase us away.
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I used to put live cockroaches in my X-Ray, but I was just a dumb kid.
 
First one I launched was an Estes X-15 RTF in 1989. The first that I built and launched was a SCRAM from the Estes Mini Tri Pack a couple months later. Both are still around, but the SCRAM (which I named Silver Streak) was retired after getting too crispy from ejection charges.
 

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