Rocketry Planet

The U.S. Spacewalk of Fame and the City of Titusville, Florida, held a commemorative model rocket launch to mark 50 years of manned space flight on June 18, 2011. In addition to paying tribute to manned space flight, the launch also commemorated the last Space Shuttle Launch scheduled for July of 2011.

SLIDESHOW: Local resident Col. Jack Lousma, left, USAF and NASA retired, was among the spectators at the The U.S. Spacewalk of Fame and the City of Titusville, Florida, commemorative model rocket launch to mark 50 years of manned space flight.

Local resident Col. Jack Lousma, left, USAF and NASA retired, was among the spectators at the The U.S. Spacewalk of Fame and the City of Titusville, Florida, commemorative model rocket launch to mark 50 years of manned space flight.

The U.S. Spacewalk of Fame is dedicated to the achievements of the local space workforce who made it possible for Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center to function. Without those people, there would have been no flight for Alan Shepard, no flight for John Glenn, no moon landing, or any Space Shuttle launches to build an International Space Station.  Many of those people are long term residents of the City of Titusville.

The main organizer for the launch was local hobby shop owner and space enthusiast Jimmy Carter. Carter wanted to raise interest in model rocketry. 
Like many other observers, he has seen a decline in youth hobby rocketry fliers. Rocketry has grown up and the children of yesterday are the high power flying adults of today.

However, one cannot fly high power in an urban area.  As a result, the activity is now banished to the countryside south of Titusville and largely out of sight. By organizing the Titusville launch, Carter was hoping to create a new crop of low power youth hobby fliers.

Carter sent out letters of invitation initially to various National Association of Rocketry members in the State of Florida. This particular rocketeer and chronicler decided to answer the call. The letter noted that the field was not very large—it was composed of two baseball fields and some small open areas of grass.  This mandated an engine impulse cap of 20 newton seconds.

This was no problem for the typical model rocket, especially ones equipped with streamers. However, the high power rocketeers who came to help had to settle for a static display of their vehicles since none wanted to fish their rockets out of the Banana River.

One model rocket that caught the eye of observers was a flying model of the proposed heavy lift rocket that is currently being proposed to replace the cancelled Constellation program. It is to be based largely on the proven shuttle "stack". A capsule that carries astronauts would ride on the top of the rocket rather ride a winged vehicle strapped to the side. It flew well under a Estes C11-3 motor.

A number of VIP's were in attendance at the Titusville event, as a number of NASA and USAF contract personnel, both current and retired, were observed watching the launches. Among them was the LCO for the Gemini program. Titusville Mayor James H. Tulley, Jr., was there along with local resident Col. Jack Lousma, USAF and NASA retired. Lousma spent time in space on board the Skylab space station in 1974 as well as flew the Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-3 in 1982. This flight was the one required to land at White Sands, New Mexico after heavy rains made the primary site at Edwards AFB in California unusable. Kennedy's landing site was not yet certified to land a Shuttle in that year so landings had to be done out west.

Col. Lousma wrote out a number of autographs to onlookers and space fans. I myself handed him a model rocket to sign which already had an autograph from Walter Cunningham of Apollo 7 fame.

In all, 50 rockets were flown during the launch, one for every year of manned spaceflight. Jimmy Carter wants to exceed that number in 2012. This will be done. All it takes is one extra. 

Special to Rocketry Planet.

Manuel Mejia, Jr., is a teacher from south Florida who uses hobby rocketry as an outreach program to breach the socio-economical barriers of some of his students. For his contribution of this article, he will receive a free Rocketry Planet T-shirt. This sponsorship is made possible by our friends at Graphix & Stuff, producers of high quality hobby apparel and vinyl signage. Want your own free gifts? Read the program details page for complete information.