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 LUCERNE VALLEY, California USA — The launch was perfect, straight up into the blue sky. Then, the parachute deployed early and ripped apart in midair.
Without a parachute, Kurt Gugisberg's $1,000 homemade rocket crashed to the ground on Saturday, the second day of ROCstock XXVII in the Lucerne Valley. "The electronics were totally destroyed, about $500 worth," said Gugisberg, 59, of Rolling Hills Estates. ROCstock is a three-day, semi-annual event where amateur rocketeers test the speed and strength of their kit or home-designed rockets. Launches continue today. Steve Marasco, 35, of Menifee, got his first rocket three years ago as a birthday gift. Since then, his interest in amateur rocketry has soared. "It gets addicting," Marasco said. "I get a lot of enjoyment out of building a rocket. The first time you launch a rocket, you don't know how it's going to perform, especially if you design it from scratch." Rocket enthusiast can get started in the hobby with a small rocket and motor for as little as $50. Or they can pay much more for a bigger rocket, said Chris Feenstra, 46, of Redlands. "I've never really kept track of exactly how much I spend and I'm not sure I want to," Feenstra said. In all, Feenstra brought 19 rockets to the weekend event. His lineup varied in size and their construction materials ranged from cardboard and plastic to carbon fiber. He expected his weekend launches to cost between $300 and $400. The single-use motor in his 5-foot scaled down V-2 rocket, designed to look like the German V-2 rockets used during World War II, cost $90. The motor for his smaller, 3-foot V-2 cost $40, he said. About 8 a.m., Feenstra launched his red hybrid, a rocket that uses a mixture of solid fuel and liquid nitrous oxide. The rocket shot into the air then gently arched overhead. An electronic timing device installed inside the rocket ignited a small amount of black powder. The tiny detonation released the parachute and the rocket floated gently to the cracked surface of the dry lakebed. Feenstra began his rocketry hobby as a youngster, but got into it again in 2000, he said. "I guess I just like to punch holes in the sky," Feenstra said. Copyright © 2008, The Press-Enterprise.
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Above, Ian Wahlberg's Stretched Goblin roars off the launch pad on a dry land bed in Lucerne Valley. Photo: William Wilson Lewis III, The Press-Enterprise. Click here to pop up a slideshow of other Lucerne Valley event photos. 
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