Estes Rockets

My grandfather worked for NASA and helped build rockets, so this was a fun activity for me. I always enjoyed model rockets as a kid, and I finally got to share that passion with my own kids. They helped build the Roto Rocket kit, and we had a successful first launch to approximately 500 feet! We bought this specific kit because it included all the extras you need for a first-time launch.

• Rocket: 1 Roto Rocket Kit
• Engines: 1 x C5-3 Engine, 1 x C6-3 Engine
• Launch Pad: Porta-Pad II
• Launch Controller: Electron Beam Launch Controller

2 hour build / 1 minute of flight

I will say this is one of those things you put a lot of time in up front to order, collect the pieces, and build… and then the launch comes and goes in a single minute. Even with all that time spent for such a quick activity, they kids loved it and can’t wait to launch it again with their friends. We did find all the pieces after the launch and will be ready to launch again soon.

A quick video of the launch

Build Notes

We didn’t have plastic cement and had to make due with rubber cement which didn’t work that well for gluing some of the rocket pieces. I enjoyed getting the right glue before you start the build.

Recovery

On the right you can see some smoke showing how high and far away the rocket went. On the left in the top right of the image you can see the parachute coming down, while at the bottom left you can see the roto rocket safely spinning back to the ground.

We lost track of the parachute as we watched the spinning helicopter like piece slowly come to the ground. That piece returned to earth much faster than the parachute, but Theo was running all over looking near our launch sight and found it probably another 100 feet from the spinning piece. Since we recovered all our pieces we can now prepare for another launch.