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'Altitude Junkies' take their rockets to the skies |
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Archived Media Articles by MIKE HOOKER, CBS4Denver.com
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Friday, October 20, 2006 |
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 WELD COUNTY, Colorado USA -- Most people don't need altitude clearance from the government to do their favorite hobbies but members of the Northern Colorado Rocketry Club do for their creations that travel faster than the speed of sound.
In a lonely corner of the Pawnee National Grasslands, dozens of rocket builders were fired up about a scaled down version of rocket science.
 Members of the Northern Colorado Rocketry Club.
The members of the Northern Colorado Rocketry Club said their rocket motors use the same propellant as the space shuttle. Some projects are huge equipped with multiple engines, onboard video cameras and fancy electronics.
Some of the rockets can fly up well over 20,000 feet, so the club has to coordinate with air traffic control to make sure there's no conflict with airplanes.
"I've turned into an altitude junkie," said a rocket builder. "That's my thing is to try to take very small rockets very, very high."
Art Hoag began flying small rockets when he was 8 years old. Now, 11 years later, his projects are much bigger including a creation he says is that largest amateur rocket ever launched in Colorado.
"It's a hobby, I just do it because I like doing it," Hoag said.
He plans to study aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado starting in the spring and his rocket hobby has already caught the eye of aerospace companies he'd eventually like to work for.
"I want to be doing what I'm doing now and making a lot of money doing it," Hoag said.
High-altitude launchers have tracking equipment because the rocket's gone far too high to actually see with their eyes.
When the parachute comes out, the rocket builders start walking in hopes they recover their work in one piece ready to fly again.
Club members say launching smaller rockets is an affordable hobby, but bigger rockets can cost more than $1,000 for each launch. |
