Rocketry Planet

Soft-spoken Steve Eves was content living life outside the public eye, dealing with frames and fenders as an auto repair specialist for Tallmadge Collision by day for the past three decades and with his family and his hobby by night.

Signing autographs? Posing for pictures? Those were things Eves never envisioned.

One historic rocket launch has completely turned Eves' unassuming life upside down.

Steve Eves, Rocket Man, talks to students at his alma mater, Springfield High School about his two world records in hobby rockets. Photo: Phil Masturzo, Akron Beacon Journal.

Eves is an international YouTube star, the subject of a documentary, a sought-after speaker, featured on a national cable news network broadcast and — gulp! — a potential Tonight Show guest.

This morning was more of the same as Eves, 51, showed videos of the flight and spoke to more than 300 Springfield High students during a two-hour assembly in the school's auditorium.

Eves, decked out in his attire of choice — jeans, white T-shirt, sweatshirt and ball cap — was hailed by students with high-fives and shouts of "We love you!" after the presentation and autograph/picture session.

"I never dreamed it would all come to this," Eves said. "And it seems like it just never stops."

Not since Eves put his name in the Guinness World Records on April 25 when his 36-foot tall, one-tenth scale Saturn V rocket raced to a height of 4,441 feet and safely descended back to Earth for a perfect landing on all four fins at Higgs Farm in Price, Md.

"It's been crazy, absolutely crazy ever since we got back," Eves said.

"The phone keeps ringing. We get so many e-mails, we can't begin to count.

"But the one thing that has really gotten the most attention is the YouTube video. It had more than 200,000 hits worldwide in the first week. It was the No. 1 viewed video in science and technology in Australia."

Eves said the comments on the YouTube site also were overwhelming.

"There must have been at least 500 comments," he said. "That blew me away that that many people cared about what I had done."

And that's just the start.

Fox News Network sent a limousine to Eves' home in Lake Township last Friday morning to take him to a studio in Cleveland. He conducted a four-minute interview that was broadcast across the country.

"I was terrified. I never thought in my lifetime that I'd be on national television," Eves said. "That was quite an experience, especially with the limo ride and all.

"A few people told me that they're promoting me getting on with Jay Leno to show the video of the flight. I did fine on the Fox News thing, but I honestly don't know if I'd be able to handle it if I were to get on the Tonight Show."

Eves said Discovery Canada filmed the rocket's assembly and launch to make a DVD for Discovery Science. The entire 23-month project will be profiled in the June edition of Rockets Magazine, which helped organize the flight.

He also said he was invited to the Space Walk of Fame's Apollo Reunion at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late July.

Eves said his educational background — he got his diploma from Springfield High — probably fueled a lot of naysayers, along with his apparent lack of financial resources.

"I think it floored a lot of people that we actually were able to pull it off," Eves said. "I think a lot of people thought it would crash and burn because it had never been done before.

"This was all new. The type of construction. The size [36 feet]. The weight [1,648 pounds]. The power we put into it. And the recovery.

"I am not a rocket expert, but I did have a lot of experts help me."

Several hobby rocket enthusiasts helped as well, donating money for the project. Eves said the total cost approached $35,000, of which $13,000 was in the nine Loki Research motors. Eves said the sponsors of the motors received a casing as a memento.

Eves said he put nearly $15,000 of his own money into the project.

Eves said he isn't sure what he will do with the rocket, which sustained only minor structural tears in the fiberglass shell.

One idea floated was to put together a float for the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival Grand Parade.

"I'd love for all the people in Stark County to get a chance to see it," Eves said. "It truly is remarkable and I think they'd enjoy it."

After that, he only knows for certain that despite the rocket being ready to fly again, it will be retired and put on display.

Eves said the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., has contacted him about that.

"They want to make it a permanent display. That's really something to think about because it would be at the birthplace of the Saturn V alongside one of the three existing Saturn V rockets," he said. "And it would be there for the next 100 years for people to enjoy. That's an easy choice, really."

Eves said he will not retire from his hobby — even if there are no records in sight to break.

"I didn't set out to set records and I didn't do this to gain fame," Eves said. "My only thought was to give everybody hope that they, too, could realize their dreams.

"I had some goofy dreams in junior high and high school, but I never gave up. And I was fortunate enough to accomplish my dream. And because of that, doors opened and things happened that I never even dreamed imaginable, like getting to shake the hands of real astronauts.

"I know I'll continue to play with my hobby, but I don't know what I'll get into because there isn't a dream there to follow like there was before."

Copyright © 2009, Akron Beacon Journal.