Rocketry Planet

AUSTIN, Texas USA — Saturday morning started early for members of the Austin-area Cub Scout Pack 990 and Boy Scout Troop 990. Today was the the day these younsters were going to break the record for the largest number of model rockets launched at one time. The previous record was held by the Boy Scout Mid-America Council in Omaha, Nebraska, who successfully launched 399 rockets in September of 2005.

Austin Cub Scout Ethan Phillips became the inspiration behind the event after reading about the previous world record attempt in Boy's Life magazine. After talking with his father, the two decided that Austin could break the record. All that was needed was a game plan and a little direction, combined with adequate funding, to pull the event off.

SLIDESHOW: Scenes at the Austin, Texas Scouts' record-breaking launch. Photos: Jim Jarvis, AARG.

The local Austin Scout groups raised $8,000 to cover the cost of the rockets and other event materials, and then began the task of assembling 1,000 model rockets, each one hand-assembled. Powered by Quest Aerospace "A" motors, the rockets needed to fly to an altitude between 500 and 1,000 feet above ground level according to the standards set by London's Guinness World Record committee, and all of the rockets had to launch within 5 seconds of each other.

The record breaking event started at 5:30AM, a necessity to get all of the ground support in place to facilitate a launch of this magnitude. Ten pads bearing 100 rods each were set up and wired with ematches to ignite the bevy of birds. Once wired, it just was a matter of placing all of the rockets on the rods, inserting the motors and hooking up the igniters.

Prior to the launch, guest speakers U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul and Austin City Council Member Lee Leffingwell took the opportunity to say a few words about the Scouts' efforts and obviously comment on their "be prepared" motto. When the time came to press the button, the skies above the Travis County Expo Center were filled with the sight and sound of 965 model rockets simultaneously rising into the air, beating the old record by 566 rockets.

"Today was a truly awesome day," said Jason Koliba, Vice President of the Austin Area Rocketry Group (AARG). "Talk about a view. A first for us all." Koliba was one of a handful of AARG members on hand to help the Scouts with the launch.  AARG is National Association of Rocketry (NAR) Section #585 and Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) Prefecture #54, Tripoli Central Texas.

Even though the Scouts beat the old record by a comfortable margin, it still didn't stop the natural head scratching that focused on the 35 inert rockets that failed to join the others in flight. While some of the misfires were the result of ematches that didn't light, the most interesting failure mode appeared to be just sheer excitement: according to Koliba, "some of the engineers/scout parents and scouts accidentally placed some of the motors in upside down."

Austin's KLBJ-FM morning show host, Bob Fonseca, the event MC, shot this video from the stage. Watch for a vapor trail to the left of the video, where a rocket missed his head about 3 feet and crashed on the stage.

Additional Pictures: AARG Member Dave Hein's Flikr Slideshow

Reader comments:

#1

CNN Headline News has a five-second spot with video of the actual launch.

Don't blink.... Check it out, tonight.


MW

I've got my AVI video of the launch that I tried to upload.. but I cannot, for some reason.

MW

herefishy on 05-12-2007 09:44 PM

#2

Quote:

I've got my AVI video of the launch that I tried to upload.. but I cannot, for some reason.

It's probably too big. There is a 1MB limit for file attachments. This is why YouTube is so popular.

ddmobley on 05-12-2007 11:43 PM

#3

I watched the news tonight and they had great interviews and video capture of the launch. I'm going to try and get a copy from the station.

Jason Koliba

DarkChevelle on 05-12-2007 11:57 PM

#4 Great Job!!

Hats off to AARG, all the sponsors & Scouts for pulling this off! I've already
viewed the YouTube video and bookmarked it. Great job, guys!!

dwmzmm on 05-13-2007 01:44 AM

#5

Quote:

I watched the news tonight and they had great interviews and video capture of the launch. I'm going to try and get a copy from the station.

Jason Koliba

I've purchased newclips, before. In my endeavor I had called a broadcaster in order to acquirie the desired material. I was directed to another company for the purchase. There are companies that preserve and format newsclips for sale/distribution to (anyone).

Mark

herefishy on 05-13-2007 01:59 PM

#6

I don't see how this is the record. At Plaster Blaster they successfully launched 931 rockets at once.

Eyesinthesky on 05-16-2007 12:18 PM

#7

No official record keeping body witnessed the PB launch. The PB launch was 931 out of 1000( ? ) rockets, this was 965 out of 1000. Both of those should set this as the official record.

-Aaron

heada on 05-16-2007 01:34 PM

#8

I should have read the article a little closer. Both are significant accomplishments. By the way, who is the "official record keeping body"?

Doug

Eyesinthesky on 05-16-2007 04:10 PM

#9

Pulled directly from the article:

'Powered by Quest Aerospace "A" motors, the rockets needed to fly to an altitude between 500 and 1,000 feet above ground level according to the standards set by London's Guinness World Record committee, and all of the rockets had to launch within 5 seconds of each other.'

So I would hazard a guess that as Guinness set the requirements and witnessed the flight that they are the official record keeping body. Seems they are the normal group of people that are the official record keeping body for most records of this type and that if it were anyone else I would question the record.

-Aaron

heada on 05-16-2007 04:53 PM

#10 Re: Austin Scouts bypass previous launch record by 566 rockets

Jeff Short of Austin is reporting that this record has been officially confirmed, that it took until January to complete, but the Austin scouts have officially set the record. How long it will take to wrest that title away, who knows, but the UK scout jamboree is probably being verified as we speak, but for now, the Austin scouts have the record.

ddmobley on 02-13-2008 11:53 AM

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