PHOENIX, Arizona USA — About 40 girls in Horizon Community Learning Center-based Girl Scout troops took their first steps Saturday as they participated in a father-daughter rocket launch at Desert Foothills Park. Although it's something area Cub Scouts have been doing annually for years, this was the first such launch for the girls.

Ahwatukee Foothills resident Bob Hale and his daughter, Allison, 6, of Girl Scout Brownies Troop 900, prepare a model rocket for launching at a Girl Scouts father-daughter rocket-launching event Saturday at Desert Foothills Park. Photo: Colleen Sparks.

Some moms who have children in Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts thought if boys could do it, the girls could do.

"We were sitting around the table chatting about how much fun we had had at the Cub Scouts launch," said Brownie Troop 900 co- leader Susan Hale, also a Cub Scout den leader.

Girl Scouts Troop 1280 co-leader Sandi Gomez said the mothers thought it would give the girls a chance to "do something the boys always do, to introduce them to science and math." Gomez's daughter, Sierra, 8, made and launched the rocket with her father, Pedro.

The project also brought together girls and their fathers, who helped make and launch the rockets, Hale said.

Saturday, the girls and their dads made repairs and final preparations for rocket takeoff. Cub Scout father David MacIsaac had built a launching pad, where girls and their fathers placed the rockets to be electrically charged, and a launching panel, where the girls pressed a button to send their rockets into flight.

Sometimes the parachutes didn't deploy but the rockets all landed safely.

The girls used glue, Kevlar, elastic strings and miniature parachutes, among other materials in the rocket kits. They decorated their rockets with glitter, paint and crayon.

"It was a daddy-daughter thing," Jaimie Goldberg, 8, said. "It was kind of a weird feeling like were we going to catch it or was it going to hit the ground."

Jon Goldberg, Jaimie's dad, said it was the first time he had made a model rocket so "we got to learn it together."

Ahwatukee resident Jason Houle helped his daughter, Aly, 8, assemble the various tubes and wiring to build the rocket.

"I liked all of it," Aly said. "It was really fun."

Jason Houle said he "did rockets" when he was a Boy Scout.

"Any time they need official dad stuff, I'm there," he said.

Ahwatukee resident Jim Cox and his daughter, Maggie, 8, were first to launch Saturday.

"It went straight up and came down," Maggie said. "The parachute opened at the perfect time."

Girl Scout organizers got permission from the Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus Pine Council for the launch and purchased extra insurance, Hale said. A Cub Scout father's engineering company paid for the rockets, engines and insurance.

The Girl Scouts plan to make the rocket launch an annual tradition.

"It's just a different opportunity for these girls to try something that might not have been thought about," Hale said.

Copyright © 2008, The Arizona Republic.