Rocketry Planet

After a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown, Liz Johnson's rocket, named "Cerberus" for the mythological three-headed dog, shot up more than 10,000 feet into the air, leaving a trail of smoke as it disappeared into a clear blue sky.

"It's like your own mini-NASA launch," she said. "It's an adrenaline rush."

SLIDESHOW: Rick VanVoorhis, left, and Pat Gordzelik carry VanVoorhis' rocket out of a field after its flight Friday. Photos: Matt Strasen.

Rick VanVoorhis, left, and Pat Gordzelik carry VanVoorhis' rocket out of a field after its flight Friday. Photos: Matt Strasen.

Johnson's Friday morning launch in Wayside marked the culmination of her efforts to earn the highest certification awarded by a nonprofit organization for amateurs involved in high-power rocketry. Earning the certification required a successful launch and recovery, said Johnson, a high school math teacher from San Antonio.

"It depends on how it comes down," she said. "Everything has to be exactly how you planned it out."

She seemed most excited to see the parachute she made deploy as the 10-foot-tall rocket drifted back to the open field.

Launches continue today with 18 college teams and more than 100 students and faculty members from around the world involved in a CanSat competition, described as a design-build-launch contest for space-related topics.

The teams will use their electrical and mechanical engineering prowess for launching and recovering rockets meeting an exact set of criteria, said Barre Wheatley, an officer for host group the Panhandle of Texas Rocketry Society. Last year, teams' rockets had to land right side up.

"It's not the launch," Wheatley said. "It's the recovery."

Rockets will hit altitudes of several thousand feet with electronic payloads about the size of a soda can. Each payload must, using sensors, determine its altitude and GPS position during descent and record ground temperature after landing.

Teams can earn bonus points for using solar power and an onboard camera.

Rick VanVoorhis, an electronic forklift mechanic from Pflugerville, sent his rocket, "HyperGammaSpaces," 13,700 feet with a motor he crafted.

"I like that motor," VanVoorhis said as his black vessel torpedoed into the blue sky, leaving a vertical column of white smoke.

He said it was the first time his rocket flew with a motor he designed and built himself.

"I'm a hot-rodder," he said. "It's exciting. It's technical. It keeps your mind real active."

Interests in rockets can start at any age. Several of those involved in Friday's launches remembered getting into trouble with their experiments as children. Others started building rockets as adults.

VanVoorhis started at 12, he said, but it wasn't until he had children that he rekindled the hobby.

Johnson became interested after helping students from East Central High School in a Team America Rocket Challenge. After two years of helping students build rockets, Johnson decided to build her own. She has spent three years earning certifications through Tripoli Rocketry Association.

The hobby shows that adults can have fun with math and science, an example that could push students to take an interest if given the freedom to be creative and make mistakes, Johnson said.

She noted that students use cell phones, computers and iPods all the time.

"They've got the technology," Johnson said. "They just didn't see the connection between the math and what they're using."

Copyright © 2009, Amarillo Globe-News.