CAÑON CITY, Colorado USA — One of the founders of model rocketry, he is known throughout the world.

Cañon City residents Vernon Estes and his wife, Gleda, recently attended the 16th annual World Space Championships of Space Models in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, as goodwill ambassadors.

The area is known for the first satellite, man, woman and dog to be launched into orbit.

“We were invited to attend by the U.S. team manager, John Lankford,” Vern said. “He said we would be the ‘rock stars’ of Baikonur.”

Vern Estes, from left, stands with JAR president Makoto Yamada and Gleda Estes at Cosmodrome Rocket Preparation building.

Thirty-one Americans left the U.S. on Sept. 18 and arrived in Moscow, Russia, where they toured the area for two days. From there, they traveled to Baikonur to attend the rocket contests for juniors and seniors from participating countries.

The international competition has specific rules for each event, Gleda said.

The team also toured Baikonur, where they saw various space memorials, the Soyuz rocket, the cosmodrome and the cottages where the cosmonauts stay the night before they launch.

“Almost to the day, two years apart, the (Russians) lost many people through accidental misfirings of the rocket,” Gleda said.

Something happened electrically and the second stage ignited where a lot of people were watching, Vern said.

Vern and Gleda were especially touched when they met Japanese Association of Rocketry president Makoto Yamada, who wrote a model rocket textbook and presented it to the U.S. team.

During the presentation, he talked about meeting the “legendary Vernon Estes,” when he was a child. Unknown to him, Vern was sitting a few feet away from him on the bus. When Lankford introduced Estes, he began to “stammer, then to laugh and then to cry,” a press release said.

Before the trip was over, Yamada presented a signed copy of the book to the couple.

Although Estes was impressed with the rocket program, he said he was surprised by the condition of the Russian launch site.

“They had a space shuttle program called the Borun that’s deteriorating,” Vern said. “They had a flight on (one shuttle) then they gave up on that program. The roof of the launch site has collapsed. They have piles of space junk that’s deteriorating.”

The Russians are successful with their launches, but the quality of their facilities is not very good, he said.

“We expected something elite,” Gleda said. “It’s not. They let us walk right up to the launcher. You’re not allowed to do that at Cape Kennedy or Johnson Space Center. You have to have pretty high clearance to get there.”

Only those who have been cleared can go into Baikonur, which has a fence around it along with security gates.

“Everywhere we went we were in buses,” Gleda said. “We had one military and a police escort.”

In the closing ceremony, the Russian team received overall first place in competition.

Prior to the final banquet, the couple received a set of Kazak robes for their role in creating the hobby, a press release said.

Estes founded Estes Industries in 1958 in Denver, where he developed a high speed automated machine for manufacturing solid model rocket motors. Nicknamed “Mabel,” the machine was instrumental in marketing motors that didn’t cost very much, but at the same time, were reliable. About one in 3,000 failed.

In 1960, he moved his operation to Penrose, where it continues to operate as a subsidiary of Damon Corporation.

Copyright © 2006 The Cañon City Daily Record.

12-17-2006 10:04 AM  #1
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 1086	Spelling: John Langford. Fact Check: Damon sold the firm to Bary Tunic several years ago. Just Jerry