Rocket Launch 2011

We gave my brother a model rocket for his birthday back in May.  Yesterday, August 1st 2011, which happened to be a civic holiday, we all went out as a family to launch it. 

The rest of us waited in the blistering heat while the boys read over the instructions.  Everything was in its original packaging, and in hindsight it looked as if some pre-assembling would have been advisable.  At one point my Dad had to walk back home to get a screwdriver. 

As you can see, the children and dogs were very helpful during launch preparation.

 Still the rocket was ready fairly quickly.  As Craig pointed out, NASA would have taken longer than 15 minutes to set up a shuttle launch, so we were actually being very efficient.

 We launched the rocket three times (because that's how many charges we had) and I cut together a short video that captures the launch experience.

 Very exciting, though the rocket was hard to follow with the camera once it was in the air.  Also, if anyone is interested this was Worf and Mortie the Jackapoo's first meeting.  The two dogs got along wonderfully.  They were very happy to frollic together despite Mortie's small size and Worf's young age.