ROCHESTER, Minnesota USA — It started out for many as a childhood hobby, but members of the Tripoli Southern Minnesota rocketry club have taken launching rockets to a higher level.

VIDEO: Tripoli Southern Minnesota prepares for LDRS 27.

To be exact, four miles high into the Kansas sky.

"In some ways we are still like kids, but the rockets keep getting bigger and bigger," said David Donovan of Rochester, the club's president

Next week, they will launch their club's 16-foot rocket at the Tripoli Rocketry Association's 27th annual national launch for Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships, in Argonia, Kan.

On Saturday, they gathered to fit everything together and put the final touches on The Sky Maven.

"There are about a dozen of us working on the rocket," said Donovan. "We started last fall discussing what we were going to build and decided to model it after the WAC Corporal, a rocket from the mid 1940s."

Members of Tripoli Southern Minnesota, a high-powered rocketry club, assemble a 16-foot rocket at the Dodge Center Airport on Saturday. Photo: Jerry Olson.

The 200-pound rocket will generate nearly 1,500 pounds of thrust at takeoff and will burn for 15 seconds. The goal is to reach nearly 800 mph and travel nearly four miles skyward. Once it has reached its peak, the rocket will break into four 4-foot sections, which will deploy parachutes and land, said Ron Freiheit of Owatonna.

This is the first time Tripoli Southern Minnesota members have created and launched such a big rocket.

The club was started in 1999 with Freiheit's help. The only other Minnesota club of its sort is north of the Twin Cities, and Freiheit wanted something in southern Minnesota.

"I have always had an interest in rockets," said Freiheit, an engineer. This will be the biggest he's launched so far.

He completed the electronics for The Sky Maven, including an onboard video to watch the takeoff from the rocket.

For more information visit:

Tripoli Southern Minnesota
http://www.tsmrockets.com/

Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships launch
http://www.ldrs27.org/

The Tripoli Southern Minnesota rocketry club will participate in the Tripoli Rocketry Association's 27th national launch at the KLOUDBusters Rocket Pasture near Argonia, Kan., from Thursday through Sept. 2.

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